Meeting of the Parliament 30 April 2025
My apologies, Deputy Presiding Officer—and I would never refer to you as “you”.
I would be very happy to meet Ms Gallacher, and I will come to the point about accommodation later in my speech.
Over this year, we will carry on working with regional chief executives and NHS boards to continue to implement the service change. Implementation is already under way in the east region, with Fife babies transferring to Edinburgh, and in the west region, with Ayrshire babies transferred to Glasgow. We have established a task and finish group, made up of the regional chief executives, regional planners and lead clinicians, to oversee and support a suite of national actions and co-ordination that will be required for the delivery of each region’s implementation plan. That includes further work on modelling the detailed impact on maternity services, and it will inform additional maternity capacity requirements, including for transfers, theatre, ultrasound and interventions.
In order to progress the new model of neonatal care, we must do all that we can to ensure that the infrastructure, workforce and funding is in place to support and sustain the model. We are continuing to provide transitional funding to the boards that are hosting the neonatal intensive care units, as we have done for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian since 2019, totalling £6.5 million, and with additional support for NHS Grampian now being included. That is in addition to the £25 million of support that we have provided to all boards for implementation of the package of recommendations within best start.
The change may mean that a small number of families will have to travel further to be with their baby. The “Best Start” report recommended that
“Neonatal facilities should provide sufficient emergency overnight accommodation on the unit for parents ... with alternative overnight accommodation being made available nearby for parents of less critically ill babies.”
Considerable developments have been undertaken to ensure that mother and baby stay together and separation is minimised. All three of our neonatal intensive care units have accommodation available, both in the unit and nearby, to ensure that families can stay with their baby.
In the Bliss report on accommodation for parents of neonatal babies in the UK, the charity notes that it is clear that more needs to be done to accommodate families, and we are considering the Bliss recommendations in relation to the Scottish findings. However, I was pleased that the young patient family fund, which is available only in Scotland, was recognised as providing valuable support to families with the costs of travel, food and accommodation.
In addition, all 15 of our neonatal units are working towards implementation of the Bliss baby charter, providing neonatal units with actions and goals to develop a culture of partnership with parents. I thank all neonatal units—