7. To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to invest in community midwifery services to ensure that they are consistently delivered in areas of need rather than in centralised, and often hard-to-access, locations. (S6O-02502)

We remain committed to ensuring that maternity services continue to be developed in a flexible and innovative way, recognising local population needs and geographic challenges. Over the past five years, the Scottish Government has invested more than £25 million to support implementation of the best start programme, which includes recommendations for continuity of carer and the delivery of community hubs. We also published the “Continuity of carer and local delivery of care: implementation framework”, which is designed to assist national health service board implementation. That will be based on a local assessment of the viability, scope and potential impact of hubs. Community midwives also deliver care in women’s homes, as necessary.

I have met midwives across the South Scotland region and what is clear to me is that there is now significant pressure on midwifery professionals’ ability to deliver regular high-quality community-based services to those most in need. It is the Government’s lack of a proper education and workforce strategy for midwives and its inability to support rural health boards with high numbers of vacancies that are contributing to those pressures. Will the Government accept that fact and set out in full the action that it can take that will ensure that midwives are supported to provide community-based services in areas that are most in need?

A couple of weeks ago, I met a number of midwives from across Scotland at their conference, and it was heartening to hear the progress that the best start programme has brought about within midwifery. We also work closely with the national midwifery task force.

I know that the member has written to me on other subjects and I am happy to meet her to discuss those issues and the issue that she has raised today.

Continuity of carer was a key recommendation of the Scottish Government’s best start plan to reshape maternity and neonatal services with a vision of relationship-based continuity of carer, tailored to the individual’s needs and delivered as close to home as possible. Can the minister provide any update on the Scottish Government’s work to progress that recommendation?

All boards continue to work towards implementation of continuity of carer following a pause during the Covid-19 period. We have reconvened the best start leads group and have held learning events and deep-dive sessions to support boards with the implementation of continuity of carer, the most recent being on 30 August. In addition, we have written to boards asking them to continue to prioritise the roll-out of continuity of carer, with a particular focus on socially complex women and families and on women with poorer maternity outcomes, and boards will report back to us on how they are progressing with that work.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

That concludes portfolio questions.