Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all our staff have the necessary training/skills to fulfil our commitments to equalities and diversity and dealing with specific groups of stakeholders. Diversity and inclusion capability building, including learning and development, for Scottish Government staff is set out in our Mainstreaming Equality Outcomes Report 2021. In July 2021, we launched new mandatory diversity and inclusion training. This aims to ensure everyone working within the Scottish Government develops and maintains a foundational level of knowledge about inclusion and supports individual self-reflection and personal development.

The Scottish Government and Scottish Green Party: Shared Policy Programme sets out that we will phase out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers in off-gas grid homes from 2025 and in on-gas grid areas from 2030, subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK Government in reserved areas.

The Shared Policy Programme also commits to introducing primary legislation, subject to consultation and to limits on devolved competence, that provides a regulatory framework for zero emissions heating (and energy efficiency), and underpinning powers to support this transition and ambitious programme.

The exact operation of the proposed regulations, and any ensuing obligations on current users of gas boilers, is still to be determined but to ensure that the approach is fair, and to avoid unintended consequences, this will be subject to a detailed consultation in 2022.

The Scottish Government does not collect statistics on private or fee-paying schools, including on the destinations of their leavers. Scottish Government statistical collections focus on publicly funded and Grant Aided schools for which it provides funding.

In the National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan, we set out our approach to measuring the poverty related attainment gap with 11 key measures identified to assess progress. We have plans to formally review the 11 NIF measures with partners to ensure they are comprehensive, as we recognise that national data needs to provide an accurate understanding of the wide range of learners’ achievement. Local authorities and school leaders are also able to use local knowledge and data to ensure support is targeted towards the children and young people who require it most.

I would refer the Member to the fact as previously answered in S6W–02319 on 21 September 2021, prison staff are under no obligation to tell their employer of their Vaccination status, as it is not mandatory to be vaccinated. Although staff are paid away from work to attend a vaccination appointment and are offered paid leave if symptoms deliver, as part of employee support arrangements.

We are guided on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme by the Covid Vaccine Deployment Plan which was last updated in July 2021.

We are actively monitoring and evaluating the vaccination status for prisoners and young offenders. NHS bodies and public health agencies, are working collectively with The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to ensure we are constantly striving to make progress, on these matters, to ensure best practice is maintained. Each prison establishment has a Local Coronavirus Response Group to assist with planning locally.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government works closely with all stakeholders including Trade Unions, to deliver the vital communication messages across the Prison Estate and the Member will appreciate that staff as part of the wider community, can be vaccinated and it is not mandatory for staff to report their vaccination status, to their employer. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) throughout the Prison Estate is effectively ensuring that we are progressing vaccinations against COVID-19 in conjunction with health professionals from Public Health Scotland (PHS), as well as other health agencies .

We realise that through our work with public health agencies in conjunction with SPS, that we have a job to engage with the prison population. In many ways it mirrors the issues found in wider society and we are dealing with the hardest to reach. Tailored communications are delivered to those in a prison setting. The National Clinical Director attended HMP Barlinnie for a Q&A session with prisoners which was made available via prison radio and TV. Posters with the same national ‘roll up your sleeves’ messaging and appropriate photography were distributed to prisons to be displayed.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensure everyone with a neurological condition has timely access to care and services in all regions of Scotland. That is why we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action in December 2019 . We are investing £4.5 million of funding to implement the Framework’s aims and commitments. The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care.

Since 2015, the Scottish Government provides £2.4 million annually to improve specialist nursing services. NHS Boards make the decision on where to prioritise this funding based on local need. NHS Boards are expected to ensure that patients, including those who require epilepsy services, have access to a range of professionals to provide the appropriate management of their condition.

The Scottish Government launched its NHS Recovery Plan on the 25 August, which sets out our key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years. The plan is backed by more than £1 billion of investment over the next five years.

By the end of this year, we will publish a National Workforce Strategy that supports the delivery of the NHS Recovery Plan , specifically its key workforce targets. The strategy will set out the strategic framework through which we will design, develop and deliver training programmes in partnership with NHS National Education Scotland and the NHS Academy, offering new routes into the NHS, and broadening opportunities. In addition, it will provide NHS Boards a framework for assessing nationally the role of Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). The NHS will gain additional 500 Advance Nurse Practitioners (ANP) over the next five years and we will be working closely with neurology services to identify areas of need for both ANPs and CNS capacity to better meet patient need.

A recent report published by the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate made a number recommendations regarding CNS roles. This work is being taken forward in Neurology (and epilepsy specifically) by a group with representation from Chief Nursing Officer Directorate, NHS Education Scotland, Centre for Sustainability Delivery as well as strong Epilepsy CNS Representation.

The impact of addressing the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many health and social care services had to be suspended or reduced in scope and scale. This has affected almost all aspects of NHS care. Addressing the backlog of care, while continuing to meet the ongoing urgent health and care needs of the country, is a priority for this Government.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery continues to work closely with Neurology services in all Health Boards. In particular work on Active Clinical Referral Triage aims to ensure patients who require appointments most urgently are seen as soon as possible, while those who may not benefit from a Consultant appointment are returned to the GP with advice and guidance; and Discharge Patient Initiated Review aims to avoid unnecessary return appointments, again supporting access for those patient who need to be seen in a timely manner.

Numbers of Nurses and Midwives in Scotland have increased by 12.1% (or 6,850.9 WTE) in this Government, since September 2006.

As a result of efforts to enhance staffing capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic, Nursing and Midwifery numbers have increased by 4.9% since December 2019 (60,651.0 to 63,634.1 WTE).

Despite consistent NHS workforce growth over nine years, it is common for vacancies to increase in the quarter to June. This period coincides with end of financial year retirements and directly precedes autumn graduate recruitment.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have invested in significantly increasing the NHS workforce; and have supported Boards to extensively redeploy staff to respond to changing clinical priorities.

We are also investing £11 million in new recruitment activity and in the creation of a National Centre for Workforce Supply. The Centre will offer NHS Boards expert advice on labour market intelligence and coordinate recruitment campaigns, providing vital additional support to health board recruitment teams. It will take full account of numbers of vacancies within Boards in doing so.

We have also sustained our investment in medical and nursing education during the course of the pandemic, with record numbers commencing training in 2020-21 (4,206 for nursing and 1,138 for medicine); and that number is set to rise further this autumn.

Ambulances are not single-crewed other than in exceptional circumstances, such as short notice unplanned staff absences, and every effort is made to double crew ambulances through rostered and relief staff, overtime or ambulance bank staff. Scottish Ambulance Service Technicians are able to deliver high quality care to patients, but where a paramedic skill set is required, paramedics will be tasked to calls.

The Scottish Government has been working closely with the Scottish Ambulance Service to reduce single-crewing wherever possible. Prior to COVID-19, we had a plan in place with the Service to reduce instances of single crewing. This resulted in instances of single crewing falling to 0.9% in quarter 1 of 2019/20.

Unfortunately as a result of COVID-19 there has been occasions where single crewing has had to be used as a result of late notice staff abstractions, however we are continuing to work with the Scottish Ambulance Service to reduce this where possible.

Our National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) position statement, published November 2020, sets out our intentions that NPF4 will strengthen our approach to protecting and restoring the health and quality of Scotland’s natural environment. We will lay a draft NPF4 in Parliament this autumn, and will carry out extensive public consultation at the same time.

The Scottish Government believe that our National Parks bring many positive benefits to our environment and our economy, which is why our Programme for Government 2021-22 commits to the creation of at least one new National Park by the end of this Parliament, provided relevant legal conditions can be met.

The process for selecting and establishing new National Park is set out in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. That legislation rightly includes a thorough consultation process and Ministers will provide an update on the timings for that in due course.