Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to be committed to supporting breastfeeding. Across Scotland the proportion of babies being breastfed at their first visit has increased over the last 10 years (44.1% - 49.3%). Twenty four local authorities had increases in breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks, from the previous year.

The increase in overall breastfeeding rates and in the most deprived areas is mainly due to an increase in the percentage of mothers who breast and formula fed rather than exclusively breastfed. The rates varied across Scotland and were lower in more deprived areas and amongst younger mothers.

Currently, much of the funding awarded to third sector organisations providing support services for people affected by grief or bereavement is not focused specifically on children and young people; rather, it is intended to support services for anyone affected by grief or bereavement. Many third sector organisations provide grief or bereavement support as part of a range of services.

The specific funding mentioned in the answer to S5W-01444 for Richmond’s Hope (to help establish their new Glasgow Govan centre) amounted to £90,000 over the financial years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17; and for Cruse Bereavement Care Scotland (to assist their work to reintegrate children and young people into society after a loss) the award was for £43,000 in 2016-17. Additionally, in 2016-17, a grant of £100,000 was awarded to Child Bereavement UK to build the capacity of professionals and organisations to support bereaved children, young people, parents and families, and to operate a helpline and website accessible to bereaved families in Scotland.

Also, while not targeted at bereavement specifically, in December 2015 the Scottish Government announced that 118 third sector organisations supporting children, families, and adult learning had been awarded £14 million from the Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund. This will benefit thousands of children, families and communities across Scotland, including children and young people who may have been affected by bereavement.

In the coming year, the Scottish Government will appoint a new national coordinator of childhood bereavement services to review and advise on next steps to improvement. Any assessment of the number of children affected by bereavement will be made as part of this review.

The Gross Ingredient Cost for the supply of omeprazole on NHS prescription is set out in the report Prescription Cost Analysis, published annually by National Services Scotland Information Division, which can be found on their website at:-

www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Community-Dispensing/Prescription-Cost-Analysis/

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding by new mothers through a range of activities which include:

A number of stakeholder events and a breastfeeding summit have taken place over the last 18 months, to share information, gather views and make recommendations. We have taken significant steps to act on these recommendations, and will continue to do so.

The Scottish Government took the decision to fund a Lead Officer post from UNICEF to support the implementation of the UNICEF BFI Standards across Scotland, and this has been highly successful.

The publication of the Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action (2011). As part of the implementation of the Framework the Scottish Government appointed a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Co-ordinator to coordinate the breastfeeding improvement activity and to link with other partners across Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The Scottish Government launched a replacement of the previous Feedgood factor website in June 2016. http://www.feedgood.scot

The Scottish Government also provides funding to support the National Breastfeeding Helpline. http://www.nationalbreastfeedinghelpline.org.uk/

This is a key appointment that will play a pivotal role in achieving the Government’s ambitions on widening access to higher education. It is therefore essential that we identify a candidate with the necessary skills, experience and availability to succeed.

The Commission on Widening Access recommended that an appointment be made by the end of the year; but we are working to progress this as a matter of priority.

The Scottish Government is happy to meet organisations to discuss the affordability of sanitary products. One request for such a meeting has so far been received and I have agreed to a meeting in due course.

We have been investing in mental health services for a number of years. Spending on mental health by NHS Scotland has increased under this Government, from £651.4 million in 2006-07 to £904.9 million in 2014-15 – an increase of 38.9%.

We are using the additional package of £150m to boost support for areas which are absolute priorities for us, and which will deliver the transformation in mental health services we want to achieve over the next ten years – including for children and young people. We are investing:

£54.1million over four years to support further reduction in waiting times;

£10million over two years to support new ways of improving mental health in primary care settings;

£15million over three years in a Mental Health Innovation Fund to support better access to Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and to develop innovative approaches to delivering mental health services;

£1million over three years to support people with mental health problems to become more physically active, and;

£4.2million over four years to support people in crisis who turn to frontline services.

Our remaining package of funding will support the priorities in our forthcoming Mental Health Strategy, to ensure we continue to improve access to services – including for children and young people. It will also focus on supporting early years and early interventions; improved support in primary care, and parity of esteem between physical and mental health so that we support people to keep well, whilst also providing treatment of the highest quality when it is necessary. We will take these decisions in conjunction with our stakeholders and partners.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report from the Mental Welfare Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission, commissioned through commitment 5 of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-2015 with supporting recommendations.

This was the culmination of a wide ranging piece of work engaging stakeholders across Scotland and provided a range of recommendations to progress the Human Rights Agenda across mental health services in Scotland.

The report’s findings, which illustrate positive change, will contribute to the thinking around the content of the next mental health strategy.

We want to embed a human-rights based approach across our priorities and actions. We’re using the PANEL approach (Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination and equality, Empowerment, and Legislation) to think about actions that deliver on human rights. In particular, Non-discrimination and equality are featuring strongly.

The Scottish Parliament recently passed the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015. The 2015 Act is currently being implemented and contains several measures which strengthen the provisions in the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 that promote and protect service users’ rights. This includes giving service users more control over their representation and strengthening the position of advance statements and advocacy which help service users express their will and preferences.

The 2015 Act also ensures that service users can more clearly express their will and preferences about how they are supported and we are currently engaging with stakeholders about how the work to implement the 2015 Act can be used to further promote the rights of service users.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report which was delivered and published in January 2016, identifying the general direction of mental health services over the last ten years. The report provides a baseline for the status of services and the views of the services, both those providing and those recipients in the areas they focussed on.

The report’s findings, which illustrate positive change, will contribute to the thinking around the content of the next mental health strategy.