Public Health Scotland

The final stakeholder blog in the series this week reflecting on our latest COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) report comes from Marguerite Hunter Blair, Chief Executive of Play Scotland. Her blog focuses on the importance of play and place for children’s life chances and draws parallels with the summer Olympics #Paris2024. Marguerite established the Scottish Play Commission (2007) and led the campaigns for Scotland’s Play Strategy (2013) and a Statutory Duty for Play in the Planning (Scotland) Act (2019). She is also Chair of the Play Strategy Refresh Group, a vice-Chair of Planning Aid Scotland, and Secretary of IPA Scotland. Formerly, CEO of Playboard Northern Ireland and Community Services Manager, Belfast City Council. Play Scotland is the lead organisation for the development and promotion of play in Scotland. They work to make the child’s right to play a reality by raising awareness; empowering parents, practitioners and communities; leading research; influencing policy; and supporting members. 

We are inviting comments on the proposed scope of new maternity care standards. The consultation runs until 13th September 2024. Click the link in the comments to access the consultation survey. For more info, please contact: [email protected] #maternity #MaternityCare #MotherAndBaby

We're looking to better understand how users currently engage with and access our statistics and data, as well as gaining feedback about what improvements should be prioritised to help ensure data best meets user needs. Have a say and complete this short survey: https://lnkd.in/eT9y6Ksa Survey closes on 27 September.

The penultimate stakeholder blog reflecting on our latest COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) report comes from Dr Steffi Keir, Senior Early Years Adviser at Save the Children UK, and focuses on understanding the COVID-19 experience of the youngest children in low-income families through the survey’s results. Save the Children works with children, young people and families to challenge poverty. They campaign to increase family incomes, reduce essential costs and tackle the causes of poverty so that child experiences poverty. They also influence policy, create research and evidence and support children and families to challenge poverty. 

Next up in the series of stakeholder blogs reflecting on our latest COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) report is one from David Mackay, Head of Policy Projects and Participation at Children in Scotland. David explores mental health and inequality through the CEYRIS data. Children in Scotland brings together a network of people working with and for children, alongside children and young people themselves, offering a broad, balanced and independent voice. They create solutions, provide support and develop positive change across all areas affecting children in Scotland. 

We’ve worked with others to publish a paper in Social science and Medicine - the relationship between changes in the size of economies and mortality-derived population health measures in high income countries: a causal systematic review Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eU9PDxXy

The annual report from the National Records of Scotland shows that there were 1,172 drug-related deaths in Scotland in 2023; a 12% increase on the previous year after two years of decreases. The unregulated drugs market is always evolving, however it’s clear that in Scotland it is becoming increasingly toxic and unpredictable. Through RADAR, Scotland’s drug harms early warning system, we’ve identified a notable rise in the availability of new synthetic drugs like nitazenes, bromazolam, and xylazine, whose potency makes them particularly lethal. These drugs, often mixed with other substances, can cause harmful effects that even experienced drug users cannot predict. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/eat9MUxg

The Scottish Trauma Audit Group (STAG) annual report, reporting on the management of patients with severe injuries in Scotland, is out today. STAG is one of a number of national audits within the Scottish National Audit Programme. STAG's aim is to improving the quality of care, overall experience and long term outcome of patients with severe injuries through measuring compliance against standards of care to support local quality improvement. Read the report here: https://lnkd.in/erqt3NMg

The first stakeholder blog reflecting on the 4th round of the COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) this week comes from Amy Woodhouse, Chief Executive of Parenting across Scotland and focuses on the impacts on parents and carers wellbeing. Parenting across Scotland is a network of charities which offer support to children and families in Scotland. They work together on issues that affect parents and families. 

We published our 4th round of COVID-19 Early Years Resilience and Impact Survey (CEYRIS) earlier this year. This most recent round explored how families were doing after returning to life with no pandemic restrictions in place to find out if the challenges highlighted in previous rounds were improving, or if there were still some families struggling to cope with lasting impacts. Lead author on the report and Public Health intelligence Advisor at Public Health Scotland (PHS), Dr Grant Aitken recaps the report highlights in the video below. Since publication, several third sector stakeholders have since written their reflections on the issues highlighted by the latest CEYRIS report and how the survey results have impacted their own organisations. We’ll be publishing each stakeholder organisation’s reflections throughout the week as blogs from our LinkedIn account. Or you can read them all on the PHS website here, in our latest blog post: https://lnkd.in/en9Qavdf Read the 4th round CEYRIS report here: https://lnkd.in/ev4GZmuC