Questions and answers

Question reference: S4W-29535

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 5 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on including mental health issues as part of the school curriculum.

The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition) Act (Scotland) 2007 places a number of duties on local education authorities including ensuring that schools are health promoting. This includes promoting physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing by supporting pupils to make positive lifestyle choices in relation to their health and wellbeing.

All adults who work in schools have a responsibility to support and develop mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing. It is for the local authority and schools to decide how to develop their own approaches to implement Curriculum for Excellence, based on local needs and circumstances.

The ‘experiences and outcomes’ describe the expectations for learning and progression in all areas of the curriculum. Under the experience and outcome HWB 06a, teachers must ensure that children and young people understand the importance of mental wellbeing and that this can be fostered and strengthened through personal coping skills and positive relationships. Children and young people should have an understanding that there is support available to them if they need it.

Every school has a named contact in specialist child and adolescent mental health services who can be contacted for advice if they have any concerns about a pupil and can provide ongoing support.

Question reference: S4O-05543

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 February 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 10 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact would be of raising the Scottish rate of income tax to 11%.

Question reference: S4W-29484

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many apprenticeships have been undertaken in each of the last five years, also broken down by gender.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish modern apprenticeship (MA) statistics on a quarterly basis. These published statistics are broken down by age, gender, framework, level and local authority area and can be accessed via SDS' website: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/.

For your ease of reference I have detailed MA starts, broken down by gender, for the past five years, in the following table:

	Female	Male	All
2014-15	10,169	15,078	25,247
2013-14	10,445	14,839	25,284
2012-13	11,040	14,651	25,691
2011-12	11,381	15,046	26,427
2010-11	9,656	11,905	21,561

Question reference: S4W-29485

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many modern apprenticeships have been started to date.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) publish modern apprenticeship (MA) statistics on a quarterly basis. These published statistics are broken down by age, gender, framework, level and local authority area and can be accessed via SDS' website: https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/publications-statistics/.

The most recent published statistics are for quarter two of 2015-16, i.e. to end September 2015. For your ease of reference I can advise that at this point there had been 12,473 MA starts.

Since we established SDS in 2008, there have been 155,005 MA starts between 2008-09 to 2014-15.

Question reference: S4O-05519

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 February 2016

To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed devolution of employment support services with the UK Government.

Question reference: S4W-29195

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 January 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 January 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide an update on how each NHS board is delivering the plan to increase motor neurone disease specialist nurses.

Funding to double the number of motor neurone disease clinical nurse specialists (MND CNS) was allocated to those NHS boards who have strong links with Scotland’s neurological centres and who currently employ MND CNS i.e. NHS Grampian, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside.

NHS Grampian will recruit one whole time equivalent (WTE) MND CNS by 31 March 2016. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have appointed two new full time MND CNS who took up post on 18 January 2016. NHS Highland has increased the existing MND CNS’s hours by 0.2WTE. The remaining 0.4WTE post has been advertised with interviews taking place in February 2016. NHS Lothian have increased the capacity of their existing MND CNSs to 1.6WTE and they will recruit an additional 0.25WTE post by March 2016. In addition, NHS Lothian have transferred a proportion of their funding to NHS Forth Valley who will employ one 0.75 WTE MND CNS to support patients with MND in NHS Forth Valley and NHS Fife. NHS Tayside has increased the WTE MND CNS complement to 1.6WTE by increasing the hours of the existing post-holder. Interim arrangements are in place using neurology specialist nurses to provide 2.0WTE specialist nurse support until a substantive appointment to the remaining 0.4WTE post is made.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to ensure that patients with MND have appropriate access to a range of professionals, including specialist nurses and allied health professionals, to ensure optimum management of their condition.

Question reference: S4F-03143

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2015

To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on her meeting with the Prime Minister this week.

Question reference: S4O-05176

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding the Apprenticeship Levy.

Question reference: S4O-04913

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 December 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 December 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the recent spending review will have on public sector finances in Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-27929

Asked by: Christina McKelvie, MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 October 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 8 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when a report providing details on the operation of Scotland’s Census 2011 will be available and what plans there are to consult users in relation to the next census.

The Registrar General has today (8 October 2015) published Scotland’s Census 2011 General Report and it has been laid before Parliament (SG/2015/191). In addition, he is launching a consultation today seeking views and evidence on the topics which should be included in the next census in 2021.

The 2021 Census will be designed and managed in Scotland to best meet the needs of Scotland’s people. National Records of Scotland wants to hear from users to learn and understand these needs and this consultation is the first step in this process.

More information and links to the consultation are available from the Scotland’s Census website at: www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/2021.

Chamber and committees