- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has taken to decrease the time that it takes for women to obtain an endometriosis diagnosis.
Answer
We know that diagnosis time for endometriosis is not acceptable and needs to improve. We recognise the time to diagnosis is not itself an effective measurement of improved health and well-being outcomes for those living with endometriosis. It is vital that we improve care and support throughout the whole diagnosis process.
To do this we have taken a number of actions including:
- Supporting the Centre for Sustainable Delivery to raise awareness and implement the Endometriosis Care Pathway for Scotland which aims to provide a holistic approach and timely care for those with endometriosis and endometriosis-like symptoms.
- Increasing education among healthcare practitioners by working with NHS Education for Scotland to deliver an endometriosis masterclass session for health care professionals, covering diagnosis, treatment and current research.
- Developing information on NHS Inform and working with charities such as Endometriosis UK and Young Scot to ensure that women have access to information that can support them to recognise when their symptoms might not be a normal period and enable more informed conversations with clinicians.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of safe walking routes to schools, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
Assessment of the safety of walking routes is a responsibility of local authorities under section 51 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.
The Scottish Government expects local authorities to keep their criteria for providing school transport under review and be flexible enough to take into account factors relative to the nature of the route, which might affect pupil safety. These factors are set out in paragraph 18 of the - .
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 3 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of how many children currently walk or cycle to school.
Answer
The Scottish Government funds Sustrans to undertake the annual Hands Up Scotland survey which provides information on the mode of travel to school used in Scotland. The most recent survey report was published in May 2023. It showed that in 2022, the percentage of school pupils travelling actively to school, either by walking, cycling, scootering or skating, was 49.4%.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of the number of any social care contracts that have been returned from the third or private sectors to the responsible local authority, and whether it can provide a list of any such instances, broken down by local authority, in each of the last five years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested as this is a matter for local Health and Social Care Partnerships. The information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many primary schools have physical education teachers based within them, broken down by local authority.
Answer
Primary Teachers are generalists; therefore, they deliver the totality of the Curriculum including PE. Specialist PE teachers are predominantly based in secondary schools.
The table shows the number of Primary schools in each authority with teachers listing Physical Education as their main subject. Head teachers are not included.
Individual teachers may have posts in more than one school. Note that in some local authorities physical education teachers that serve more than one school are recorded as centrally employed rather than allocated to individual schools. Teachers recorded in this way do not appear in the following table.
Primary schools with teachers in post with Physical Education as their main subject taught 2023 - Excludes head teachers.
| Primary Schools with PE teachers in post |
Aberdeen City | 13 |
Aberdeenshire | 18 |
Angus | 44 |
Argyll and Bute | 9 |
City of Edinburgh | 25 |
Clackmannanshire | 15 |
Dumfries and Galloway | 3 |
Dundee City | 0 |
East Ayrshire | 0 |
East Dunbartonshire | 3 |
East Lothian | 0 |
East Renfrewshire | 1 |
Falkirk | 0 |
Fife | 2 |
Glasgow City | 2 |
Highland | 5 |
Inverclyde | 0 |
Midlothian | 1 |
Moray | 8 |
Na h-Eileanan Siar | 0 |
North Ayrshire | 0 |
North Lanarkshire | 0 |
Orkney Islands | 18 |
Perth and Kinross | 23 |
Renfrewshire | 1 |
Scottish Borders | 33 |
Shetland Islands | 21 |
South Ayrshire | 9 |
South Lanarkshire | 1 |
Stirling | 0 |
West Dunbartonshire | 0 |
West Lothian | 16 |
All local authorities | 271 |
Grant Aided | 1 |
Scotland | 272 |
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how it is monitoring the effectiveness of the smoke-free perimeter around hospital buildings, and how many on-the-spot fines have been issued since the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force.
Answer
We have committed to undertaking an evaluation of the effectiveness of the smoke-free perimeter around hospital buildings as part of the first Implementation Plan of the recently published Tobacco and Vaping Framework. We do not centrally hold information on the number of fines issued since the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that there are no compulsory redundancies within the college sector.
Answer
Operational decisions on pay and staffing matters are the responsibility of individual colleges.
The Scottish Government expects every effort to be made, in consultation with trade unions, to protect jobs. The Scottish Government has been clear that compulsory redundancies should only be considered as a last resort, after all other options have been fully explored in collaboration with trade unions.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that colleges across Scotland undertake pay negotiations in the spirit of the Fair Work Framework.
Answer
As set out in the Letter of Guidance issued by the Scottish Government to the Scottish Funding Council on 29 March 2024, implementation of Fair Work First must be the guiding criteria to promote fairer work practices for staff within the college sector.
The Scottish Government expects college employers and trades unions to follow Fair Work principles and work together to reach a conclusion to the pay negotiations with a settlement which is both fair and affordable, without the need for further industrial action.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 1 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met trade unions from the college sector, and what was discussed.
Answer
The Scottish Government meets with campus unions on a bi-annual basis, and representatives of the college sector in a number of forums regularly, where a range of matters important to the sector are discussed.
We expect college management and unions to work together to do everything they can to reach a pay settlement that is both fair and affordable.
However, while the Scottish Government can have no direct role in these negotiations, we will continue to engage with both management and unions as and when appropriate to do so.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 1 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to encourage school leavers to consider social care as a career pathway.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises the importance of encouraging young people to enter the social care workforce, and are working with partners to provide future sustainability to the sector and create additional career choices for those looking to leave education.
This has included a burst of marketing activity which specifically engaged with school leavers in summer 2023, and a careers event held in collaboration with Developing the Young Workforce Forth Valley in October 2023.