Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-13951

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13505 by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023, what the timeline is for its project to trial the Framework in social care settings.

Question reference: S6W-13950

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13532 by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023, what the minimum standards developed are.

The Fair Work in Social Care Group has developed the following minimum standard terms and conditions:

Term/Condition	Proposed minimum Terms and Conditions
Sickness	Tenure within the sector is recognised for sick pay: < 1 Year. 5 weeks full, 5 weeks half pay 1 Year+ 9 weeks full, 9 weeks half pay 2 Years+ 18 weeks full, 18 weeks half pay 3Years+ 22 weeks full, 22 weeks half pay 5 Years+ 26 weeks full, 26 weeks half pay
Annual Leave	35 days; 27 holidays, 8 public On appointment: 35 days After five years: 37 days After ten years: 41 days (all including 8 public holidays)
Pensions	Contributions of 10% from the employer and 5% from the employee.
Professional Development Time	To include paid time for induction, mandatory training, and role specific training as required by regulatory bodies. To include ongoing professional development.
Maternity and Paternity	Maternity: 52 weeks, comprising; 8 weeks full pay, next 18 weeks half of full pay (plus Statutory Maternity Pay). Next 13 weeks, Statutory Maternity Pay, final 13 weeks no pay. Paternity: 2 weeks.
Core Pay (Contracted hours, overtime and overnight support)	Core pay should include contracted hours, any guaranteed overtime and overnight support payments.
Overnight Support	Sleepovers to be paid at a minimum Real Living Wage hourly rate. Waking hours paid at contractual rate with a minimum of Real Living Wage hourly rate.

Question reference: S6W-13484

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has (a) reviewed any wider opportunities available to access a career in nursing and midwifery, as an Allied Health Professional (AHP) or in Health Care Science (HCS) and (b) explored the potential to further increase the use of approaches such as the Open University and apprenticeship models.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with partners including Higher Education Institutions, Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland, and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to NHS Scotland careers, including the development of progressive career opportunities for existing staff and the development of apprenticeship models to provide an ‘earn and learn’ pathway.

Career pathways are actively promoted to staff and those who may be interested in an NHS career, through website and social media accounts. This has included the development of resources such as the

Question reference: S6W-13475

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is (a) promoting career pathways and (b) delivering policies on upskilling to develop the health and social care workforce, and whether this work includes the development of (i) foundation and modern apprenticeships and (ii) resources for those providing careers advice.

The Scottish Government works closely with partners including Health Boards, Skills Development Scotland (SDS), and the Scottish Funding Council on skills development, employability and widening access to health and social care careers, including the development of progressive career opportunities for existing staff and apprenticeship models to provide ‘earn and learn’ pathways.

Boards have created opportunities for over 500 band 4 assistant practitioners across acute, primary care and mental health, using the Development and Education framework for Bands 2-4 staff to support the continued professional development of this integral part of the NHS workforce.

We continue to prioritise the development of credentialing of medical skills, working collaboratively with the other 3 nations, GMC, Medical Colleges, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and NHS Boards to identify and progress upskilling priorities more quickly that will improve services and benefit patients.

Last year, we worked collaboratively with SSSC and NES to develop a national induction framework for social care staff. An evaluation of the framework has been launched with the aim of improving and expanding the materials further. We are also committed to developing continuous professional development opportunities for the existing adult social care workforce.

We are working with NES, Boards, Department of Work and Pensions, SDS, and Local Authorities to ensure those providing careers advice have the appropriate health and social care resources to support them.

Question reference: S6W-13494

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed support for international health and social care workers, such as Objective Standard Clinical Examination (OSCE) training, in order to help them gain regulatory body registration in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-13487

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published a scoping review of Allied Health Professional (AHP) and Health Care Science (HCS) education; what gaps it has identified in training programmes, and what actions are required to meet future service needs.

The Scottish Government has recently conducted an Allied Health Profession Education & Workforce Policy Review. The recommendations of this review will be published shortly with an implementation plan published thereafter. The National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy has a commitment to undertake a scoping review of Healthcare Science education and to this end have recently conducted and published the first baseline review of the provision of Healthcare Science education.

Question reference: S6W-13470

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to increase the number of undergraduate medical school places.

As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government (PfG), the Scottish Government committed to increasing the number of available medical school places by 500 over the lifetime of this Parliament. As part of this commitment we are also doubling the number of places reserved for widening access students from 60 to 120.

We are in the process of delivering this commitment following the creation of 200 additional places which have been distributed between Scotland’s 5 medical schools in the academic years 21-22 and 22-23. The next tranche of 100 will be delivered in 23-24, and the allocation of the final 200 places remain under consideration.

Question reference: S6W-13442

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has analysed the detail in its health and social care three-year workforce plans, and, if this is the case, whether this analysis will inform its workforce policy development.

Yes. The Scottish Government has analysed the three-year workforce plans produced by Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships. An analysis of key themes and emerging national priorities was subsequently discussed by the National Workforce Forum, which brings together senior government officials from across Health and Social Care Directorates, and representatives from Health Boards and HSCPs. This work has informed the establishment of a suite of priorities for national coordination and action in 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-13463

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has set new international recruitment targets (a) focusing on key areas of shortage and (b) directly supporting key commitments set out in their NHS Recovery Plan, including meeting its anticipated 1% net growth, and, if so, what these targets are.

Question reference: S6W-13438

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 24 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has completed a needs assessment of available health and social care workforce data and sources, and used this to build recommendations for workforce data collection design, quantity, and quality.