³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The number of undergraduate medical school places available since 2007, broken down by University, has been provided below. It should be noted that these include international students and reflects the places available; rather than the eventual entrants.

The Scottish Government funded places offered since 2007 can be seen in the following table.

The Scottish Government recognises that people have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, that is why we continue to work closely with Boards, SDS, PACE services and the DWP to promote a wide range of opportunities available in NHS Scotland, including apprenticeships to provide career opportunities and pathways in health and social care for young people, career changers and those further from the job market.

The requested information on how many WTE (c) project coordinators and (d) community navigators is not centrally available.

Information on how many WTE (a) clinical psychologists, (b) counsellors (e) assistant psychologists and (f) other posts created to support the health and social care workforce in the last 12 months can be found on the following link .

The Preparing for Work in Health and Social Care in Scotland Programme was developed by the NHS Scotland Academy and was launched on the 17 December 2022. Within the programme there are 8 training modules, supporting those new to the Health and Social Care employment to deliver safe, effective, person-centred care.

The resources are designed to support local induction and are subject to regular review to ensure quality and currency of content

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13692 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13720 on 24 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care supports the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and sets out priorities for recruitment, training and retention. We anticipate that the Strategy will be used by workforce, service and financial planners from across Health and Social Care at all levels.

Through this Workforce Strategy, and the NHS Recovery Plan, we are investing in staff so that they have the right skill mix and career progression opportunities.

Actions have been set out as part of the Workforce Strategy to develop, improve and transform workforce data, information and intelligence and to commit to publishing workforce projections. These actions will be delivered through the Workforce Data and Intelligence Programme, including a Data Links and Gaps Project with key workstreams of NHS Workforce Data Quality Improvement (WDQI), Adult Social Care WDQI and Primary Care WDQI.

A baseline review of Healthcare Science Education and Training Provision was carried out in 2022 and published on 20 October. Emerging themes for further investigation were identified from survey feedback, and this has helped ascertain the work required to increase the visibility of the Healthcare Science workforce to improve the pipeline of a future workforce. Examples of specialist training currently available were highlighted, including Neurophysiology at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Work has been done in consultation with NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to investigate and suggest improvements for low uptake in Neurology expansion posts. Discussions are underway with the NES lead Dean for Medicine to consider how to make improvements in the coming year when these posts are re-advertised. Many of these vacancies are in the North and East of Scotland, reflecting the difficulty in recruiting to posts in these areas. NES has been promoting awareness of Neurology training opportunities in these regions, and hope to make progress in 2023 and 2024 recruitment.

Through our National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions, we are identifying priorities to strengthen the neurological workforce alongside the National Workforce Strategy, Remobilisation Plans and Rehabilitation Framework. We have scoped neurological workforce priorities and work has commenced to address these with a focus on nursing, allied health professionals (AHPs), neuropsychology and neurophysiology.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13687 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13366 on 20 December 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .’