The Scottish Government believes that the analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies does not provide a meaningful description of the fiscal position in a fiscally autonomous Scotland as it simply projects forward Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland.

The fiscal position would depend on a range of factors including the transition process, the negotiated fiscal framework between Scotland and the rest of the UK, Scotland’s contribution to UK wide public services such as defence and international aid, as well as the decisions made by the Scottish Government about economic policy, public spending and borrowing.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies published the analysis referred to on 19 March 2015. The latest meeting of the Council of Economic Advisers was held on 3 March 2015, prior to this publication.

The Scottish Government believes that the analysis by the UK Treasury does not provide a meaningful description of the fiscal position in a fiscally autonomous Scotland as it simply projects forward Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland.

The fiscal position would depend on a range of factors including the transition process, the negotiated fiscal framework between Scotland and the rest of the UK, Scotland’s contribution to UK wide public services such as defence and international aid, as well as the decisions made by the Scottish Government about economic policy, public spending and borrowing.

The Council of Economic Advisers meets twice a year and provides advice on improving the competitiveness of the Scottish economy and tackling inequality in Scotland.

The First Minister set out the Scottish Government’s position on this matter at First Minister’s Questions on 30 April 2015.

The New Medicines Fund provided additional support to NHS boards for the cost of medicines approved under the new process implemented by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in line with the Task and Finish Group report provided to the Scottish Government and published by the Health and Sport Committee and related individual and group patient treatment requests.

Workforce data published by Public Health Information (PHI, formerly Information Services Division) does not specify the number of specialist neuromuscular care adviser (NCA) posts in Scotland.

The Scottish Government funded a two year pilot project to assess the need for neuromuscular care advisors; one post in each of the regional planning group areas. Currently there is a NCA based in the west of Scotland and one in the south and east.

The role of the NCA includes: emotional support throughout the patient journey; integration with health and social care multi-disciplinary teams; signposting information and referring to appropriate specialist services; educating patients, families, health and other professionals; and enabling self-management.

There is currently no neuromuscular care advisor (NCA) post in the north. The NCA post in the north of Scotland was a project funded for two years with an end date of 31 December 2014. The North of Scotland Planning Group (NOSPG) did not support continued funding as it did not feel that one regional care advisor post in the north was the optimal model for improving neuromuscular care. However, the NOSPG recognised the valuable learning informed by the temporary role of NCA. They will be taking forward a recommendation to bring together the relevant specialist clinical services in the north of Scotland to articulate an improvement plan for implementation over the coming months.

In addition there are two part time neuromuscular physiotherapy posts in the north of Scotland (Dundee and Aberdeen) who support paediatric physiotherapy for this group of patients. The north has also appointed a part time neuromuscular physiotherapy co-ordinator to work with all services to ensure that patients have appropriate access to allied health care professional support.