Chamber and committees

All NHS boards have utilised the funding available to build the infrastructure in their recruitment teams and appoint an international recruitment lead.

I refer the member to the Scottish Government’s second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan which committed to offering up to 500 apprenticeship opportunities across NHS Scotland in 2022/23.

NHS Boards deliver a wide range of employability programmes, following the ‘No One Left Behind’ overarching approach which is place-based, needs-led and person-centred. Programmes delivered in 2022-23 have focused on a wide range of groups, including: young people at risk of long-term unemployment, care leavers, veterans and service leavers, and lone parents over the age of 25.

The Scottish Government see good accessible workforce data as a key tool for effective future planning within the Primary Healthcare Workforce. We have a number of ways in which we do this.

In General Practice, Public Health Scotland published workforce planning data through the General Practice Workforce Survey in November 2022 that gives us access to the latest General Practice workforce wte data, this is followed by the General Practice Workforce and Population Survey that gives us accurate headcount data across General Practice, published most recently in December 2022.

Workforce data on general dental practitioners is published by NES biannually, the latest data was published in December 2022.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery intends to publish a report on workforce planning for the eyecare workforce by end March 2023.

Reporting arrangements are in place to monitor progress of Health and Social Care Partnerships against their Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIPs). This includes progress on establishing Multi-Disciplinary Teams. Further information is provided in our annual statistical publication that published in March 2022.

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. We also know that social workers face significant challenges and have taken steps to ensure they have the right support.

The Scottish Association of Social Work has been given £200,000 in 2021-2023 to provide a peer support service covering a range of issues including wellbeing and resilience.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES), in partnership with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, produced an e-learning module for Non-Executive Board members on the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act. This was promoted to NHS Board Chairs in July 2022 and is a resource that all staff can access.

Equality is a theme running through the new Leading to Change programme aimed at developing future and current leaders in health and social care. NES is also working with a range of stakeholders to scope out current training and learning needs for staff on equality and diversity. This will inform work by NES to continue to develop up to date and relevant learning resources on equality and diversity for health and social care staff.

This will include a review and update of the NES essential learning module 'equality and human rights' which is available to the health and social care workforce.’

Scoping work is ongoing to consider the additional data collection, recording, and quality assurance requirements necessary for implementing this action. Further information on the delivery of this action will be set out in our update to the National Workforce Strategy, to be published later this year.

The Scottish Government commends and congratulates the athletes competing at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf later this year. The Invictus Games has been hosted in a range of locations worldwide, and has been successful in using sport to inspire recovery and support rehabilitation of injured and sick servicemen and women.

In terms of what consideration the Scottish Government has given to Scotland hosting the Invictus Games, the Scottish Government works with a range of organisations and partners, particularly VisitScotland's Events Directorate, to assess hosting opportunities to secure a strong and diverse pipeline of major events.

The Independent Review of Adult Social Care (IRASC) recommended the establishment of a National Social Work Agency (NSWA) for oversight of professional development of social workers and it is our intention to establish a NSWA as part of the National Care Service.

It’s objectives will be to support and invest in the profession by providing national leadership and overseeing social work – ensuring we attract and retain the right people, developing them in their roles and raising the status of social work as a profession. The NSWA is to be established as part of the National Care Service infrastructure, at a national level, given the important links and function that social work has within the wider National Care Service structure and given the important relationship between social work, social care and community health.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the professional regulator for the social services workforce in Scotland.

The SSSC will begin work this year to establish what further groups of social service workers should be considered for professional regulation.

On completion of this work SSSC will report to Scottish Ministers who will then decide on what groups should be brought into the scope of professional regulation.

The Private Water Supply Grant is a demand led scheme which involves private water supply users and owners making an application to their local authority. The local authority reimbursement claims combine the total for all grants awarded, rather than distinguishing between home and commercial claims. Between the years of 2007 - 2022, the South Scotland region was awarded a total of £3,627,986.80. The breakdown for each year is: