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Analysis of the responses to the 2020 Health and Social Care Staff Wellbeing Survey, by protected characteristics, was completed in 2021. The results did not show any significant differences in the wellbeing of staff from under-represented groups, compared to other groups of staff and compared to the general well-being of under-represented groups in the general population.

Demographic questions, including on ethnicity were included in the 2021 and 2022 iMatter Health and Social Care Staff Experience Continuous Improvement Model questionnaires for the first time.

The demographic analysis is scheduled to be available later this year. This will allow Health Boards to put action plans in place to deliver improvements, where needed, for under-represented groups.

The demographic questions replicate the 2022 Scottish Census questions, meaning that direct comparisons of the workforce to the population can be made.’

The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to develop, deliver and subsequently assess workforce, finance and service plans in 2022-23. As part of the planning process, health boards were set workforce priorities in connection with their Annual Delivery Plan. Further, Scottish Government guidance on the production of three-year workforce plans, issued in April 2022, set out expressly how and where medium-term workforce planning should be directly aligned with financial and service planning priorities, taking into account assessments of changing service demand and relevant financial/budgetary forecasting.

The NHS National Ethnic Minority Forum (EMF) was established in April 2021 and aims amplify the voices of ethnic minority staff across the health service and tackle issues of systemic racism. EMF members also use their expertise to shape policy and practice in areas such as the Leading to Change Programme. We continue to work closely with the EMF on their priorities for 2023-24:

• the development of a ‘How to Talk about Race’ in the workplace guide
• considering support for staff reporting incidents of racial abuse/harassment
• supporting the development of anti-racism training resources for staff (an action that Scottish Government are taking forward).

Finally, I had the pleasure of attending an in-person meeting of the EMF on the 5 th October 2022. I made it clear that I will continue to actively support the chair and members in delivering their aims objectives.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

We support veterans across our housing legislation. We published Social Housing Allocations in Scotland – A Practice Guide in 2019, to ensure that social landlords have an allocation policy that complies with all relevant legislation and statutory guidance. The guide provides clarity for social landlords about giving priority to Service leavers. The guidance also reinforces the need for social landlords to have clear information and housing options in place for all applicants, including veterans.

We amended legislation so that, from 1 July 2019, where the landlord is a charity providing accommodation to veterans, a private residential tenancy agreement will not apply. This will ensure that veterans specific accommodation in the private rented sector can continue to be used, ensuring that a veteran may be offered temporary accommodation for a period of rehabilitation and training, or permanent accommodation in line with the organisation’s charitable purpose and the needs of the veterans.

There is a statutory requirement on local authorities to produce a Local Housing Strategy that sets out its strategy, priorities and plans for the delivery of housing and related service. In September 2019 we published refreshed Local Housing Strategy guidance which encourages Local Authorities to fully consider the housing requirements of the Armed Forces community. The guidance has also been strengthened to encourage appropriate engagement with relevant organisations, such as Veterans Scotland, to better understand the needs of the Armed Forces community when developing Local Housing Strategies.

Scotland has some of the strongest homelessness legislation in the world and all local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to anyone at risk of homelessness, including veterans. We are also proposing new homelessness prevention duties, to be included in a forthcoming Housing Bill. These will include new duties on public bodies to ‘ask and act’ about housing situations and a change to existing legislation to allow local authorities to act at an earlier stage to prevent homelessness. Our approach is based around the principles of shared public responsibility, earlier intervention across systems and more choice and control for people over their housing options, which will include the veterans population

We are also taking action to make improvements across the rented sector that will progress the right to an adequate home and deliver our vision for Housing to 2040.

In the first year of the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults in 2021-22, the Scottish Government provided funding to the 32 Third Sector Interface (TSIs) who were responsible for distributing the funding to local grassroots community organisations. Local application processes are underway for Year 2, with information on the organisations receiving funding to be published in June 2023.

Further information about the funded projects can be found in the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund: Year 1 - which was published in June 2022.

A table providing details of the awards made to grassroots community projects by area, purpose and value of each award has been placed in SPICe bib number 63970.

This information was provided by Third Sector Interface organisations in April 2022 based on awards made.

The Scottish Government continues to work with the Veterans in Custody Support Officer network to encourage breakfast clubs for veterans in Prison.

In 2020-21, the Scottish Veterans Fund provided funding to the Lothian Veterans Centre to run a weekly lunch-time club for older veterans providing a welcoming environment for companionship and peer support. More generally, the Scottish Veterans Fund has provided funding to several projects which provide support to veterans to integrate into the local community, such as an activity co-ordinator for veterans in FirstLight Café in Falkirk, or away days for veterans in the Huntly region through Networks of Wellbeing.

Since its inception in 2014, the annual budget for the Commissioner’s office has been £250,000. This is funded by the Scottish Government and covers the Commissioner’s remuneration, support staff, office and IT requirements and general running costs. The draft budget published on 15 December proposed increasing this to £280,000 in Financial Year 2023-24.

The UK Government has since funded the appointments of the UK Independent Veterans Advisor and the Wales and Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioners for which the Scottish Government do not receive any Barnett Consequentials.

The Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) funds Community Link Workers (CLWs) as part of primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). At March 2022, 249 WTE CLWs had been recruited to support GP practices.

The Scottish Government published information on the number of CLWs recruited broken down by Integration Authority on 21 June 2022 as shown in the table below. Further information, including the location, by Integration Authority, of CLWs by both headcount and whole time equivalent, since 2018, can be accessed at: .