Chamber and committees

The National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan will strengthen and harmonise workforce planning practice, take full account of the future demand for safe and high quality services for Scotland’s people and help to more accurately identify and address gaps in supply.

The Plan consists of three distinct Parts:-

• Part 1 focuses on NHSScotland workforce planning and was published on
  28 June 2017.

• Part 2, covering the social care workforce, will be published jointly with COSLA later this year.

• Part 3, covering the workforce in primary care, will be published following the conclusion of GMS contract negotiations.

These important steps will enable different health and social care systems to move together towards publication of a second full Health and Social Care Workforce Plan in 2018 and beyond.

The information requested is not held centrally at this level of detail. Specific local Information may be available from individual NHS Boards.

Information on Administrative Services staff (including support to Clinical staff), broken down by NHS Board, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:-

A meeting has been set up by Scottish Government officials with Chief Officers and Chief Finance Officers of a number of Integration Joint Boards, along with COSLA, to discuss the implementation of Free Personal Care for under 65's. This meeting is due to take place on Thursday 26 October.

The requested information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

From 1 January 2016 to 1 January 2017, the latest date to which figures are published, a total of 53 calls were made to the Whistleblowing Alert and Advice Lines Services (formerly the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line). This figure comprises 40 public interest cases (whistleblowing) and 13 private cases (contractual).

Due to the independent and confidential nature of the service, the Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of the total number of cases by NHS Board. Of the public interest cases, where individuals identify the Board they work for, the Board is advised directly in a format which cannot compromise the identity of the member of staff. This is done on a 6 monthly basis.

Figures are provided in 6 monthly periods then published online at the following link. Please note that the figures until 31 July 2017 will be published shortly.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating a modern, inclusive Scotland which protects, respects and realises internationally recognised human rights, and is working with the whole of Scottish society to deliver a shared vision for a Scotland where everyone can live a life of human dignity. The Scotland Act 1998 requires that all Scottish Parliament legislation and all acts of members of the Scottish Government must be compatible with core ECHR rights (“the Convention rights”). In addition, the Human Rights Act 1998 ensures that every public authority in Scotland is obliged to act compatibly with the Convention rights and enables human rights cases to be taken in domestic courts.

Scottish mental health and incapacity legislation is based on rights and principles. We believe that the 2003 Act is fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The 2003 Act has never been found, in part or in whole, by the European Court of Human Rights to be not compliant with ECHR.

During the passage of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015, the Scottish Government committed to undertake a review to determine whether the provisions of the 2003 Act fulfil the needs of people with learning disability and autism. Alongside the review, there is also the ongoing work relating to the Adults With Incapacity legislation and a full formal consultation will launch later in the year. It would therefore be inappropriate to consider wider changes to mental health legislation until these pieces of work have concluded.

Scotland's approach continues to be to promote best clinical practice based on current evidence as outlined by Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines. SIGN No. 148 Acute Coronary Syndrome makes recommendations on the use of appropriate diagnostic tests for cardiac events.

The cMyC test is currently the subject of research that will contribute to the emerging evidence base, which is in its early stages. Consideration of the introduction of new diagnostic tests is informed by advice and evidence-based recommendations made by the Diagnostic Steering Group, working in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the Scottish Health Technology Group and Scottish Medicines Consortium.

As disclosed in response to parliamentary question S5W-09441 on 23 June 2017, health resource consequentials received and allocated between 2011-12 and 2016-17 are set out in the following table.

This shows that the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment made in 2010-11 to pass on health resource consequentials in full, with further investment over and above consequentials made by the Scottish Government in 2015-16.

Figures prior to the period outlined above are not available on a basis which is directly comparable between the Department of Health and the Scottish Government health portfolio. An example of this is the inclusion of spending on adult social care within figures for the Department of Health.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Estimated non-domestic rates income from the public health supplement was £25.8 million for 2012-13, £34.9 million for 2013-14 and £35.2 million for 2014-15. The income was used to support preventative spend measures.

On 2 October 2017 a new norovirus reporting system recording all ward and bay closures due to norovirus outbreaks in Scotland was launched by Health Protection Scotland (HPS). This will allow closure figures to be selected by date and health board and the ability to view several months’ worth of norovirus data at one time http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/giz/norovirussurveillance.aspx. As this reporting system has only just commenced there is limited data available under the new process, which will be reviewed by HPS after 12 months.

Until 1 October 2017, HPS published a weekly norovirus report on its website. The focus of this report was on the latest four weeks of data to ensure the most relevant information was available. This helped NHS boards with outbreak preparedness and impact assessment, particularly during the winter months when norovirus numbers can increase. Copies of norovirus reports between October 2011 to September 2017 are still available from HPS on request http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/giz/norovirus.aspx.