Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2018
I am happy to provide that information. The 2017-18 position has already been made available to the Health and Sport Committee, but if there is any more information that I can provide I will be happy to do that. I want to meet the needs of the Parliament in terms of the budget scrutiny process.
The Auditor General has previously called for greater financial certainty for NHS boards, so I will say at this point that a UK multiyear funding settlement—as has been proposed by the Prime Minister, no less—along with this Government’s commitment to pass on all health consequentials, will go a long way to providing our health and social care partners with the greater certainty of funding that they need.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss with members the steps that we are taking at a local level in response to governance and accountability issues. I have given a detailed statement in Parliament setting out my response to the issues at NHS Tayside, and the details on the investigations will be scrutinised by the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee in the coming months. It will be important that all parties take stock following those reviews, and that we all learn lessons from the situation in Tayside and make improvements for the future.
I set out in my statement that we would be receiving returns from all boards by 30 April. I can, however, confirm that all boards that hold endowment funds have now responded to a letter from the director general for health and social care about their approach to, and use of, endowment funds. Those responses have been passed to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to review, but I can confirm today that there was nothing in the responses that is a cause for concern and that no boards are showing retrospective use of endowment funds in order to improve their financial position, as happened in Tayside. The returns have now been passed to OSCR for external scrutiny and review. I will ensure that any recommendations from OSCR in relation to the future governance arrangements of endowment funds are fully supported.
In my time as Scotland’s health secretary, spending on health has seen the largest increase of any country in the UK, and Scotland has had the largest increase per head on health spending in the UK. I will always fight for the best interests of our NHS. Reform of the NHS is equally as important as investment in it. I have set in train a huge range of actions to make the improvements that we need to see, both now and into the future, including the new primary care workforce plan, published on Monday, which will sit alongside the previous two workforce plans.
There is much in our NHS and care services to be proud of, but I am not complacent. That is why I have set out the range of actions that are already under way. I have listened to calls for greater transparency around finances and I have agreed to the actions to deliver that. That is why this Government will continue its approach of meeting the challenges that we face, delivering sustained improvement and serving the people of Scotland, now and for the years and generations ahead.
I move amendment S5M-11984.4, to insert at end:
“; supports calls for the implementation of any recommendations from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) on the future governance arrangements for NHS board endowment funds; notes the Scottish Government’s commitment to publish a financial framework for health and social care, in line with the recommendations of the Auditor General, following publication of the Scottish Government’s forthcoming medium-term financial outlook; believes that the Health and Sport Committee should have the opportunity to consider the framework to give further parliamentary oversight to the finances of boards and integration authorities; recognises that progressive financial and fiscal planning is necessary to ensure investment in Scotland's health, care and wider public services, and believes that the UK Government should set out its long-term plans for health and care funding in advance of the 2019 UK Spending Review, and that all health resource consequentials from this should be passed on in full in Scotland.”
15:05Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.