Craig Hoy

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to collaborate with and support small and medium-sized digital health and care enterprises to be innovative.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Digital Health and Care provides funding to DHI which in turn supports enterprises of assorted sizes to develop ideas and solutions that can be applied in health and care settings. We support DHI with their industry leadership group which meets with medium si…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with universities and colleges to prepare students for a digitally-enabled health and care environment.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, in partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), has been working for a number of years to engage with universities and colleges to shape the future workforce for the digital heal…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a digital maturity model for what "good" looks like in health and social care services’ digital services, and, if so, what steps need to be taken to achieve this.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14135 on 2 February 2023 All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committe…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed a (a) commercial and (b) procurement strategy that covers all national, regional and local approaches to (i) developing and (ii) buying digital products for health and social care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: We are in the preliminary stages of development of our Commercial and Procurement Strategy and have started early engagement with stakeholders. An update will be provided later this year with the delivery priorities for 2023-24 in the next version of our Del…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what training programmes it has developed to ensure that all health and care staff have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Building Digital Skills and Leadership Programme enables the delivery of Priority 4 of the refreshed Digital Health and Care strategy where ‘Digital skills are seen as core skills for the workforce across the health and care sector’. The associated prog…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what software packages, other than Office 365, were considered for embedding across the health and care system.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Advances in technology and the growth in its use, means we need a constant focus on what is coming next. Our annual delivery plan for digital health and care (Care in a Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022 to 2023 - Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to …

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to increase awareness of cyber security and cyber threats within the health and social care sector.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit hosts regular Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network webinars bringing together more than 150 information/cyber security experts from across the sector to raise awareness of the latest threats, share good practice…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it last conducted digital maturity exercises across its health and care delivery landscape.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: In 2019, Scotland undertook its first digital maturity assessment across health and social care which helped to identify key priorities. A second national digital maturity exercise will be undertaken in 2023 and will provide current picture of digital matur…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government conducts audits of Health Boards considered to be operators of essential services to obtain compliance assurance. From October 2021 – December 2022 we have spent £220,498. The Scottish Government has entered a new agreement for the del…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to further embed Office 365 across the health and care system.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Office 365 is already widely embedded across health and care with over 160,000 staff enabled to use the latest Microsoft Office software. A key part of this is a single tenancy agreement for NHS Scotland that supports a once for Scotland approach. Use of Offi…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how the development of a digital platform will contribute to the twin aims of citizen and staff access to relevant real-time information across the health and care system. 

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Scottish Government and COSLA will shortly set out a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, which will articulate the first set of principles and deliverables needed to improve the access and use of data. One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is …

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what work it has done with senior leaders within health and social care to develop the skills needed to embed digital technology and literacy across their organisations.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: We have recently agreed the arrangement for a new post-graduate course in Scotland. The 'Leading Digital Transformation in Health and Care' (MSc) will provide up to 60 funded places aimed at senior and aspiring leaders across the health and social care sector…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is (a) promoting and (b) facilitating appropriate, safe and secure access to (i) clinical, (ii) biomedical, (iii) care and (iv) other data for approved research, development, and innovation in the public interest.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government and COSLA are developing a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care due for publication this year. In advance of this Strategy, the Scottish Government recently funded and launched Research Data Scotland ( RDS) to help fulfil this co…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed a safety case for all major health and care systems, and, if so, what approach it followed to design these.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Currently, several key national programmes have undertaken safety cases - this includes the national vaccination programme and work on Connect me (remote health monitoring). More broadly, we are currently developing our national policy approach to safety case…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to streamline the information governance landscape setting out the roles of key organisations within health and care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government has undertaken extensive engagement with stakeholders across health and care, including health boards, the research community, industry and many other stakeholders, in order to understand the information governance landscape and identi…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its last conducted digital maturity exercises in the health and care sector, which areas were identified as areas for improvement, and what funding was allocated to support these.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Despite the digital maturity assessment taking place in 2019, the findings were not made available until early 2020. Unfortunately, much of the work planned to take forward the learning from the assessment was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As referenced…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how often it (a) reviews and (b) publishes its approach to ensuring any new technologies used in health and care comply with its technical, data and design standards, and when it last did so.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: There are existing organisations that evaluate new technologies including Scottish Health Technologies Group. Scottish Government operates a robust governance structure to review and support compliance of new and existing technologies. All programmes are requ…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how much it has invested in information governance and cyber skills within health and social care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government is supporting staff to develop digital skills through the Building Digital Skills and Leadership Programme. Specifically, to support IG and cyber security across health and social care, the Scottish Government has provided funding to…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is ensuring that (a) consistent and (b) tailored digital skills learning and development on accessible platforms exist for all health and care staff.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Currently, staff can access digital skills learning and development resources through the Turas platform managed and run by NHS National Education for Scotland, and through the skills platform of SSSC. Work is underway on reviewing the accessibility of this, …

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what tools and training resources it has created to support the improvement of information governance and cyber skills within health and social care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Since launching the Digital Health and Care Strategy in 2021 the Scottish Government has created various resources to support the improvement of Information Governance and cyber security skills, including but not limited to:The National IG Competency Framewor…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to modernise its core health and care business systems.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Scottish Government is undertaking a wide range of digital programmes to support partners including work on Microsoft 365, the roll out Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA),the rollout of new General Practice IT systems, develo…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how many health and social care staff do not currently have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for individual NHS Boards.

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security in order to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies. We promote best practice, regulatory requirements, and global intern…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to ensure that essential health and care digital services are secure-by-design and that this approach is adopted across the supply chain.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Scottish Government promotes the use of the Cyber Security Procurement Support Tool, which was developed to help public sector organisations to identify cyber risks and improve the cyber security of supply chains by asking suppliers consistent questions a…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published a cloud-first strategy across health and care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Digital Directorate have published Scotland’s Cloud First policy alongside a set of principles and a framework for adoption. Cloud First – Cloud First - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The Cloud First policy is an integral part of delivering the Scottish Gove…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it is preparing the health and social care workforce to deliver different types of services in different ways online.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The cross-sector Building Digital Skills & Leadership Programme hosted by NHS Education for Scotland is our main programme to support the ongoing work of health and care employers, alongside the redesign work of individual change programmes (such as Near Me) …

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how much it has spent on training health and social care staff to ensure that they have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The development and maintaining of digital skills across the workforce is the responsibility of individual employers and academic institutions. We do not hold information centrally on the amount spent by health and social care organisations on development of …

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to expand the specialist digital, data, design and technology (DDAT) professional workforce within health and social care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Whilst recruitment is the responsibility of the employing health and social care organisation, the Scottish Government, COSLA and the Local Government Digital Office are currently considering how to best apply the DDaT Professional Framework to the health and…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to develop career development opportunities within the specialist digital, data, design and technology (DDAT) professional workforce within health and social care.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: We are in the process of exploring the feasibility of how we can embed the DDaT Framework into all NHS Scotland Health Boards. This is being discussed collaboratively across health and social care in Scotland and with NHS England to share experiences of ongoi…

18 Jan 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its approach is to (a) national infrastructure and (b) data (i) hosting and (ii) architecture across the health and care system.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14125 and S6W-14130 on 2 February 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamb…