The consultation period for the draft Social Isolation and Loneliness strategy, A Connected Scotland ended on 27th April 2018. The Scottish Government received 416 consultation responses, ranging from large national organisations to individual members of the public. The responses have been made available to the public, and you will be able to find them here.
A consultation report will be made available in September and following this there will be an announcement by the Scottish Government of the next steps.
As a result of last Cabinet reshuffle, Ms Jeane Freeman MSP has taken up a new role as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport and will no longer be leading on social isolation and loneliness. The new lead for social isolation and loneliness is Ms Christina McKelvie MSP, Minister for Older People and Equalities.
There is also news of a potential single item question in both the Scottish Household Survey (2018) and the Scottish Health Survey (2019). It is hoped that both of these surveys will be reported on by the end of 2019 and the question is reported to be:
“How much of the time in the past week did you feel lonely?”
If you have any questions or need any further information please do not hesitate to get in touch with: Kiren.Zubairi@vhscotland.org.uk
