Chamber and committees

National Records of Scotland publishes data on the number of people who have died in Scotland. Data for the period March 2020 to March 2022 on population deaths by occupation group, including data on deaths with Covid-19 mentioned on death certificates, is available here (table M7): https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-22-monthly-data-week-14.xlsx

(a) Psychiatry

Table 1 sets out the number of established training places in each of the various psychiatric specialties. This data reflects trainee establishment levels from August 2016 – August 2022.

On 11 March 2022, we published the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

As part of the Strategy, we have committed to taking forward specific actions to improve how we gather, use and assess NHS Workforce data. This includes taking steps to improve the demographic data we collect and the analysis we undertake of data obtained at different geographic levels within our health and social care system.

The Strategy further commits us to taking forward complementary actions to improve workforce planning capacity and capability within our health boards and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs).

New guidance has already been communicated to health boards and HSCPs to support the production of demand-led 3-year workforce plans, supported by local systems’ workforce data. Later this year we will also publish new staffing projections for health and social care.

Complementary data systems and data improvement work is taking place, as part of the Implementation Programme being established to support delivery of the Workforce Strategy. We have undertaken to publish annual updates outlining progress with the Strategy’s implementation, in support of our tri-partite ambition to achieve long-term workforce sustainability through recovery, growth and service transformation.

The requested information on retirement numbers is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason for leaving or destination.

Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found (turnover tab) here: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/01-march-2022-workforce/dashboards/nhsscotland-workforce/?pageid=6429

Health Boards are responsible for conducting pre-retirement interviews and no data is held on this centrally. The Scottish Government would expect Boards to ensure that managers engage with staff at all points within their career as a matter of good practice, including prior to retirement to discuss staff experience and career journeys.

The Scottish Government's 'Supporting the work-life balance' PIN Policy contains provisions for supporting staff approaching retirement, including the opportunity to attend a pre-retirement course where they will have access to a wide range of information to support their retirement planning: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2015/07/supporting-worklife-balance-partnership-information-network-policies/documents/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/govscot%3Adocument/00481986.pdf

Following receipt of the Royal College of Nursing's recent 'Nursing Workforce in Scotland' report, I was fortunate to attend a roundtable event on 30 March, hosted by the RCN, to hear directly from nurses on their priorities and concerns. These discussions will inform work with Health Boards to explore what more can be done to ensure even greater workforce flexibility.

The Scottish Government continues to invest in the registered nurse role across community, social care and primary care settings. We have introduced in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland a funded scheme to enable former nurses and midwives to complete a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) approved Return to Practice (RtP) programme and to re-enter the professional register across all fields of practice.

We have also invested over £45m since 2021 to train and introduce into the workforce an additional 375 nurses within the district nursing service. This investment supports the shift in balance of care into community settings by delivering more care in homes and reducing rates of admission to the acute hospital service.

The Scottish Government launched a national marketing campaign in November 2021 to attract more people with the right skills and values to the social care sector including nurses for social care settings. This campaign concluded in February 2022. In addition, the Scottish Government is working with the Department for Work and Pensions to host a series of sector-specific job fairs across Scotland during April and May to support recruitment efforts to all role types, including nurses, within the sector.

We have been working with NHS Boards to increase the use of international recruitment to alleviate pressures and fill key roles by supporting a number of measures. We have already provided £1m across NHS Scotland to build capacity within recruitment teams and a further £1m to fund International Recruitment Lead Posts. We are also recruiting at least 200 registered nurses from overseas with funding of £4.5m available to Health Boards to take forward this recruitment.

The SIGN guidelines recommend all diagnoses should ideally be made through a multi-disciplinary process and not done by a single clinician.

There is no requirement for the diagnosis to be made by any particular profession. This should be dependent on who has the skills and experience and may include Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Paediatricians and Speech and Language Therapists.

Not all health professionals will be trained to diagnose as this is a specialist skill, but it is the expectation of the Scottish Government that they should be aware of and have access to referral pathways.

By the end of Core Psychiatry training, trainees must be able to:

• receive a full psychiatric history from and perform a Mental State Examination (MSE) on patients within a range of mental and neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan in routine, urgent and emergency situations, incorporating appropriate terminology.
• assess patients from a range of different cultural, spiritual, and religious backgrounds, including asylum seekers and refugees, and demonstrate an understanding of how protected characteristics may impact on clinical presentation.

In order to successfully complete Core Psychiatry training, all trainees must undertake a neurodevelopmental sub-specialty placement, either Intellectual Disability (ID) or Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), so they are aware of and will be familiar with the process of diagnostic assessment.

General practitioners are essential to recognition and assessment. Autism is covered in the GP Curriculum alongside a range of other neurodevelopmental differences. Clinical psychology doctoral trainees receive training in relation to assessment and intervention for people with neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism. Undergraduate training ensures that any Speech and Language Therapist at any level can provide or contribute assessment information that could assist an assessment team in making a diagnostic decision.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to produce the NES Autism training plan, to ensure that staff involved in diagnostic assessments across the lifespan have the right skills and knowledge, prioritising staff from across Scotland who are involved in diagnostic assessment.

The Scottish Government does not currently have plans to conduct an under 16 cancer patient survey. The Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer published a strategy in September 2021, ‘ Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care ’, which commits to improving services nationally and supporting a consistent approach to care and treatment across the country for children and young people up to the age of 25. This strategy was developed through consultation with service users, parents and carers, partner organisations and NHS Scotland staff.

This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland. The information requested is not held centrally.

I refer you to the answer of the aforementioned question S6W-07924, specifically:

"...We are, however, actively engaged with our partners, including local government, to understand what impact the increase in fuel prices is having across Scotland, and how social care providers can support their staff to ensure they can continue to deliver the invaluable support they provide."

In relation to this answer, I can reconfirm that my officials engaged with relevant officials at COSLA as early as 7 April, to consider the impact of rising costs, including fuel costs, on our social care workforce and are working together to better understand the situation.

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 information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.