Scottish Government’s engagements with NHS Boards in relation to winter preparedness planning: FOI release

Information requested

1. In light of the publishing of the Scottish Government’s surge and winter preparedness in health and social care services national planning priorities and principles, whether the Scottish Government has received a finalised document from health boards outlining their operational surge and winter preparedness plans for 2025. If so, when did the government receive each health board’s plans?
2. If the Scottish Government has received or is expected to receive such plans, was a deadline set for health boards to submit their plans? If so, when was this deadline set, how long did health boards have to submit plans, and what was the deadline to submit plans?
3. On which date did health boards receive the Scottish Government’s surge and winter preparedness in health and social care services national planning priorities and principles?

Response

In relation to section 1 of your request, regarding whether the Scottish Government had received a finalised document from health boards outlining their operational surge and winter preparedness plans for 2025 and when these were received, the Scottish Government received assurance from all NHS Boards outlining their operational surge and winter preparedness for 2025 in the form of local plans and correspondence.

The table below sets out when the Scottish Government received each Board’s plan, and all were received by 22nd October.

Board	Plan Received	Date received
NHS 24	Yes	14/10/2025
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	Yes	17/10/2025
NHS Borders	Yes	10/10/2025
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	Yes	17/10/2025
NHS Fife	Yes	17/10/2025
NHS Forth Valley	Yes	16/10/2025
NHS Grampian	Yes	08/10/2025
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Yes	15/10/2025
NHS Highland	Yes	16/10/2025
NHS Lanarkshire	Yes	15/10/2025
NHS Lothian	No	NHS Lothian indicated they did produce a separate winter planning document, but instead winter and surge planning was embedded across whole year planning.
NHS Orkney	Yes	10/10/2025
NHS Shetland	Yes	17/10/2025
NHS Tayside	Yes	17/10/2025
NHS Western Isles	Yes	22/10/2025
Scottish Ambulance Service	Yes	16/10/2025

​​​​​​​In relation to section 2 of your request, regarding the deadline for submission for these plans, on the 8th October 2025 the Scottish Government asked NHS Boards to share their ‘Local Winter Assurance Plans for 2025/2026’ by Thursday 16 October 2025. Flexibility was allowed on this submission date and extensions to the deadline agreed if requested by Boards.

​​​​​​​In relation to section 3 of your request, regarding the when health boards received the Scottish Government’s surge and winter preparedness in health and social care services national planning priorities and principles, on the 21st August 2025 NHS Board Chief Executives received a fully developed draft of the document to facilitate the development of their own Board plans. NHS Board Chief Executives were also asked to provide feedback on the document.

About FOI

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