Chamber and committees

<>The Scottish Government is undertaking a range of actions that will support productivity improvements in the Scottish economy including; investing in Scotland’s transport and digital infrastructure; investing in early years, schools, further and higher education to boost employability and enhance skills; and supporting a culture of entrepreneurial ambition and innovation throughout Scotland. Further information can be found in Scotland’s Economic Strategy, which is available at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/5984.

The Scottish Government currently use GDP per hour worked to measure Scotland’s productivity performance through Scotland Performs.

Scotland Performs monitors and reports on progress against the Scottish Government’s seven purpose targets and 50 national indicators.

Data on Scotland’s productivity performance is currently available for years up to and including 2013. Progress against the productivity purpose target, covering the period up to 2013, is published at the following address:

http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/purpose/productivity.

Building leadership capacity in NHS boards is a significant priority for the Scottish Government.

Effective leadership and management is one of the five priority areas for action in Everyone Matters, our 2020 vision for the NHS Workforce. Within that priority area the Scottish Government is supporting delivery of five leadership and management focus areas:

Cross sector working.

Adopting values driven approaches.

Making space for honest dialogue to improve performance, sustain good performance and tackle poor performance.

Strengthening management at all levels but with a particular focus on middle management, talent management and succession planning.

Leading teams and engaging people.

To oversee this work the leadership advisory board has been established. It provides strategic leadership and advice to the respective leadership and management development governance forums across health and social care services in relation to their identified and agreed leadership and management development priorities

The Scottish Government welcomes Equality Network’s The Scottish LGBT Equality Report. Despite the significant progress made in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality, particularly in recent years, we are aware of the inequality still facing LGBTI people and communities today and that there are many challenges that still remain. Equality Network’s report reinforces this position, and will assist in the development of government policy to address these issues of inequality.

The Scottish Government’s strategic approach to date has been to work in collaboration with LGBT organisations in Scotland to address the priorities these communities have identified to progress equality for LGBT people. This is no more evident than through the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014.

The Scottish Government will continue to work strategically in collaboration with LGBT organisations and communities to develop the policies and legislation which we have jointly identified as being critical to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

Section 9 of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 allows the Scottish Ministers to make an Order enabling civil partners in a partnership registered outwith Scotland to change their civil partnership to a marriage in Scotland. On 6 March 2015, the government issued a discussion paper on the proposals in relation to making an Order under section 9. This discussion paper is at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00472742.pdf. Following this, on 8 June 2015, the government issued a consultation on a draft Order. This consultation is at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00479412.pdf and the draft Order at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00479414.pdf. The effect of the draft Order is to allow persons in a same sex civil partnership registered outwith Scotland to change that civil partnership into a marriage through having a marriage ceremony in Scotland. The government is currently considering the responses to the consultation and intends to lay an Order under section 9 before Parliament later in 2015. Orders under section 9 are subject to the affirmative procedure.

The Scottish Government is committed to driving up standards in our NHS and we had already taken action to implement the recommendations of the reviews the academy’s report covers. We are expanding our world leading Patient Safety Programme, implementing the Scottish Health Council’s review of NHS health board’s annual complaints and feedback, taking forward Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s work around the reporting of adverse events and have announced plans to appoint an independent national whistle blowing officer and whistle blowing champions in all boards.

We are absolutely clear about the value we place on staff and the safe and effective service they deliver to patients. We currently have the highest staffing levels across our NHS than ever before, with increases under this government of over 1,300 more consultants, and 2,300 more qualified nurses and midwives. NHS Scotland led the UK in putting mandatory nursing workforce planning tools in place and these are working well in helping health boards to plan for the number of staff required to provide the best possible care for patients.

We are constantly striving to further improve health care in Scotland and will review the recommendations within this report and take forward any learning that will benefit NHS Scotland, as part of the follow up work to the Vale of Leven, Grampian and North Lanarkshire reviews or separately.

NHS Scotland health boards are responsible for resourcing out-of-hours services to meet the needs of their populations. The national review of primary care out-of-hours services, commissioned by the Scottish Government in January 2015, is examining the out-of-hours workforce as part of the workforce and training task group which includes doctors. The review is due to report its findings and recommendations in September 2015.

The Scottish Government is currently funding the Scotland General Practitioners (GPs) Returner Programme, which provides an opportunity for GPs who have previously worked in NHS general practice to safely return to general practice following a career break of at least two years or time spent working abroad. It is envisaged that this scheme will facilitate the increase in take-up of GPs working during the out-of-hours period. The programme offers incentives for participants to contribute to the out-of-hours service.

In addition to setting national policies and providing resources (NHS Lanarkshire’s resource budget has increased by £41.8 million or 4.1% in 2015-16 to a record high of £1,055.6 million), the government keeps in close contact with health boards on the key risks they face, providing additional support where this is necessary and appropriate.

For instance, the two ‘red’ risks identified in the last corporate risk register presented to the board of NHS Lanarkshire in May 2015 referred to the sustainability of local primary care out of hours services and unscheduled care performance.

On the former, the board of NHS Lanarkshire agreed an interim model in late May 2015 to maintain patient safety in the short term while developing a long term solution around a broader range of out-of-hours proposals. These long term proposals, which will ultimately be subject to ministerial approval, must be developed in consultation with staff and the general public and be fully consistent with the conclusions of the national review of out-of-hours services, due in autumn 2015.

On the latter, NHS Lanarkshire has previously received £2.03 million from the government through the £50 million National Unscheduled Care Action Plan over two years (£0.89 million in 2013-14 and £1.14 million in 2014-15). For 2015-16, the health board will receive unscheduled care action plan funding of £811,762.

The design, implementation and management of primary care out-of-hours services is the responsibility of NHS Scotland health boards. The Scottish Government is aware of the interim model in place for primary care out-of-hours in NHS Lanarkshire. All boards will be expected to align their out-of-hours services with recommendations arising out of the national review of primary care out-of-hours services.