Scottish Public Affairs Update - August 2024

Chancellor of the Exchequer speech outlines new UK government's plans

On 29 July, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made a statement in the House of Commons. Key points raised included: 

• HM Treasury has undertaken an audit of public spending (2024-25). 
• The Budget will take place on 30 October 2024.
• Finalised [Whitehall] departmental budgets for this financial year and the next will be confirmed alongside the Budget on 30 October and a multi-year Spending Review will conclude in Spring 2025.
• The Government has agreed an offer to junior doctors in England regarding pay awards.
• In England and Wales, those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive winter fuel payments from this year onwards. [In Scotland, responsibility for the winter fuel payment is set to be transferred to the Scottish Government in September and replaced with the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment].
• It is still to be determined what impact the changes announced will have on the funding allocation Scotland receives.

Scottish Government

Mental Health Capacity Reform Programme

BPS members continue to represent BPS on Scottish Government workshops as part of the government's mental health capacity reform programme. Initial workshops have explored the scope and definition of "mental disorder" within the mental health act, including in relation to personality disorder; learning disability (civil and forensic); and dementia. 

Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 

The strategy is now in implementation phase. We expect an update soon from government on progress made to date on the associated delivery plan actions. Via Scotland's Mental Health Partnership (of which BPS is a member organisation) and through on-going engagement with government, we will continue to ensure that the voice of the psychology profession is heard throughout implementation phase. 

Government publishes findings of Independent Review of Community Learning and Development 

The Scottish Government has published the report of the Independent Review of Community Learning and Development (CLD), which was led by Kate Still. The Independent Review began in December 2023 and was commissioned by the Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Veterans.

The report highlights long-term challenges faced by the sector, including sporadic strategic leadership; lack of clarity of purpose and policy cohesion; poorly resourced and fragmented delivery infrastructure; annualised and short-term project funding; the challenge of 'professionalising' a sector where so much delivery depends on volunteers; and the absence of a shared framework to measure and report on the positive outcomes CLD delivers.

The report author notes a sense of "existential crisis" in the sector, due to a prolonged period of extremely difficult budgets, together with increasing demand and widening scope for where CLD can provide support. Report recommendations include:

• The policy rhetoric about the need to address the attainment gap in educational outcomes, due to the impact of poverty, needs to be backed up by a fairer distribution of existing budget resources.
• There needs to be greater equity of resource distribution within a joined up formal and informal lifelong learning system that gives parity of esteem to those being educated as well as educators.
• By Autumn 2024, the Scottish Government and CoSLA should establish a joint CLD Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) including an Equalities Forum and the group should agree and publish a detailed, prioritised and timed Delivery Plan by the end of 2024. 
• Wherever possible, funding should be part of core budgets rather than project related. If this is not possible, then project funding should be provided over a multi-year period, with an explanation provided if that is not the case.

The government is considering the report findings and its recommendations alongside CoSLA and issue a response and next steps plans in due course. 

BPS will keep members posted on developments. 

Scottish Parliament 

National Care Service (Scotland) Bill at Stage 2

The Bill is currently at Stage 2 (amendments). Significant changes to the Bill at this stage will reflect the government's plans for:

• Local Authorities to retain responsibility for all current functions and the delivery of social work and social care services and there will be no transfer of staff or assets. 
• Reforming Integration Authorities (IAs) rather than creating new Care Boards
• The establishment of a National Care Service Board

The Scottish Government has published its NCS Bill draft Stage 2 amendments and also produced an NCS Factsheet, which includes details on what's next for the NCS. The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing, Maree Todd, has confirmed that further work is needed to confirm which legislative approach would best deliver the intended changes in relation to direct funding; inclusion of children's services and justice social work; and Anne's Law.  

BPS will keep members updated as the Bill progresses. 

The Scottish Parliament is in recess from 29 June to 1 September 2024.

Other stakeholders

Accounts Commission IJBs briefing flags "unprecedented pressures and financial uncertainty" for community health and social care 

A briefing by the Accounts Commission on Integration Joint Boards' Finance and performance 2024 warns that community health and social care faces rising unmet need and managing the crisis is taking priority over prevention.

Key findings include:

• The Accounts Commission has not seen significant evidence of the shift in the balance of care from hospitals to the community intended by the creation of IJBs.
• Data quality and availability is insufficient to fully assess the performance of IJBs and inform how to improve outcomes for people who use services, with a lack of joined- up data sharing.
• IJB funding has decreased by £1.1 billion (nine per cent) in real terms to £11 billion in 2022/23. The funding gap is set to triple in 2023/24.
• Vacancies are at a record high, with nearly half of services reporting vacancies. A quarter of staff leave jobs within their first three months and there is continued turnover in senior leadership.
• IJBs are making savings by not filling staff vacancies and using their financial reserves, but this is not sustainable.

Scotland's human rights watchdog criticises lack of progress in tackling suicides and mental health problems in prisons and forensic mental health settings

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has published a report highlighting issues including the lack of mandatory mental health training for prison staff and people in need of psychiatric care not being transferred from prison to hospital. Report findings include:

• In terms of training for prison personnel on recognising symptoms of mental health problems and appropriate referral, there is no mandatory training for prison staff and, while NHS staff can access mental health training, there is no consistent approach to providing training across the estate
• SPS has made commitments to rollout trauma-informed training and developed specific strategies related to women and young people, but placed the onus on staff to ensure they remain in competency
• Outcomes in relation to the accessibility, availability and quality of mental healthcare remain inadequate to address the high levels of need in this population
• No action has been taken to put in place a new system for investigating deaths in mental health detention despite proposals by the Mental Welfare Commission
• There is no publicly available data on the effectiveness of suicide prevention strategies in either prisons or the forensic estate
• There has been significant improvement to the female prison estate and new approaches to custody have been adopted. It is too early to assess whether these new facilities and approaches will lead to deep structural and conceptual changes as the vast majority of women prisoners remain in parts of the prison estate that have not been reformed. There also remains a lack of provision of secure mental health services for women.

Open Consultations

Scottish Government consults on long-term prisoner release process

The consultation is seeking views on proposed changes to the long-term prisoner release process (those sentenced to 4 years or more). 

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 9 August 2024.

Scottish Government consults on support for those leaving care and entering adulthood

The consultation seeks views on the support available to young people as they leave care and enter adulthood. It addresses areas impacting care leavers such as planning and preparation, Continuing Care, Aftercare, health and wellbeing, education, and housing. 

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 18 September 2024.

Scottish Government consults on updates to the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 (AWI Act)

The Scottish Government consultation seeks views on suggestions for change to the AWI Act that aim to:

• Improve access to justice for adults affected by the AWI Act
• Shift the focus of the AWI Act to one that truly centres on the adult
• Enable adults to access rights more easily
• Ensure adults are supported to make and act upon their own decisions for as long as possible
• When an adult cannot make their own decisions despite support, ensure that their will and preferences are followed unless doing so would be to the overall detriment of the adult.
• Set out proposals for reform concerning authority for research.

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 27 September 2024.

Scottish Government consults on children's hearings system redesign

The consultation seeks views on its proposals for redesign of the children's hearings system. The policy aims of the proposals are: 

• to ensure that the children's hearings system meets the needs, and respects the rights, of all the children and families it serves 
• to ensure that the processes of the children's hearings system support children and families to properly participate and engage - with the referred child always at the centre 
• to support the children's hearings system to become more inquisitorial and to minimise the application of adversarial proceedings, without diminishing the significance of the process 
• to ensure that the children's hearings system and the professionals operating within it have the capacity to deliver what each child needs 
• to ensure each child continues to be treated in a way that is trauma-informed and accounts for their age and stage of development 
• to make other technical and procedural alterations where it is necessary, appropriate or beneficial to ensure processes and procedures work more effectively 

To inform the BPS response, please send your views to [email protected] by 12 October 2024 

To view all open and closed consultations, visit: Consultations and briefings.

Contact

To find out more about our policy and public affairs work in Scotland, view the Scottish Public Affairs Updates on our website or contact June Deasy, Senior Public Affairs Adviser in Scotland ([email protected])