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In January we announced a recommended 10.8%increase in student nursing and midwifery intakes for 2018-19 – the sixth successive, with an extra 364 places equating to over 3,700 entry places - this includes a recommended increase from 110 to 122 Learning Disability places – up by 10.9%.

Information for 2006 and earlier is not available as this was a transitional year in terms of how NHS staff were recorded due to the move from the Whitley system to Agenda for Change, the national NHS pay system which has introduced new pay bands and harmonised terms and conditions for the NHS workforce.

The number of learning disability nurses employed by each NHS Board is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following links (Go to the “Band Grouping” tab for Bands 5-9 only):

Mar-15 to Dec-17

Sep-12 to Mar-15

Sep-07 to Sep-12

Although the information requested is not held centrally, the Scottish Government’s Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework (2011) outlines the measures that should be taken by all organisations working with families to ensure that every parent is supported to give their baby the very best nutritional start in life. We have invested more than £15.8m directly to NHS Boards for implementation of the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework, of which breastfeeding support is a key component.

We are committed to delivering 250 link workers to work in GP surgeries and direct people to local services and support. As set out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Integration Authorities (IAs), NHS Boards, the British Medical Association and the Scottish Government, (published November 2017), IAs are responsible for working with GPs, the third sector and other stakeholders to plan community links worker services locally, ensuring the needs of their local population are identified and addressed, starting with areas of socio-economic deprivation. This need should be reflected in the three-year Primary Care Improvement Plans being to be submitted by IAs by July 2018.

Links workers are one of six key priorities for the new GP contract. These priorities will be delivered by IAs, in line with their Primary Care Improvement Plans, through use of the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF) – a key element of Scottish Government’s Primary Care Fund. An annual funding letter to IAs, including breakdowns of the PCIF to NHS Board and IA level, is in preparation and, once finalised, will be placed on SPICe. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the PCIF into individual priorities, as commissioning and spending decisions within the allocation will be made by IAs as part of the Primary Care Improvement Plan process.

The Scottish Government recognises that the nature of child abuse and neglect is such that they are often hidden, which means that it is difficult to estimate figures relating to abuse and neglect for those children in Scotland who are never involved with services who might be able to help support them and their families. Therefore, the figures that refer to neglect and abuse must be understood in that context.

The Scottish Government publishes annual Children's Social Work Statistics. This is information collected from local authorities and secure units on children and young people, generally younger than their mid-twenties, who were formally looked after, under child protection measures, or in secure care at some point between August and July of each year. The most recent publication was published on March 27, 2018, and you can find the latest statistics here: .

It is important to clarify that the child protection data collected from 2012 onwards should not be compared to previous years' data on the category of abuse/risk. The reason for this is that the categories of abuse used prior to 2012 related to the main category of abuse/risk for registrations on the child protection register. Subsequently the data gathered was concerns identified at the case conferences of children who were on the child protection register. Since 2012, multiple concerns can be recorded at each case conference (rather than just the main category of abuse). This means that the total number of concerns is larger than the total number of registrations, and that figures on concerns identified from 2012 onwards are not comparable to previous data on category of abuse/risk.

I attach two tables. The first, Table A, is a collated table of concerns identified at case conferences from 2012 -2017, containing details of the concerns raised including neglect, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. It is worth noting that other concerns included on the table may also indicate that a child could be subject to neglect, but this might not be formally recorded as a separate concern at a case conference. The second, Table B, is the number of registrations to child protection registers following an initial or pre-birth case conference.

Table A

The Scottish Government continues to support women to breastfeed as the normal nutrition for babies.

It is for each NHS Board to plan services to meet the needs of its population. Most health boards have infant feeding advisors and/or peer support coordinators who will provide support to mothers, regardless of the choices the mothers make in how they feed their infants.

The Scottish Government engages with all boards, including NHS Lothian, to discuss their general provision of support, by appropriately trained staff, that meets their population need.

We have been working with the National Scottish Steering Group for Educational Psychologists (NSSGEP) on workforce planning to ensure a sustainable supply of educational psychologists to meet needs. On 25 May 2018 an agreement was reached between COSLA and the Scottish Government on a new partnership funding package to help with fees and living costs for trainee educational psychologists. This will deliver up to 30 new educational psychologists each year.

It is for individual local authorities to take decisions on the numbers of educational psychologists they need and employ. There are a number of reasons why educational authorities have unfilled positions, which can include when a recruitment process is on-going but not complete, where a recruitment process does not generate a suitable candidate, where the incumbent is on maternity leave, and where a local authority has not given approval to fill a vacancy.

The following table, taken from the school staff census, shows the number of educational psychologists (full time equivalent) employed by education authorities, broken down by local authority and year since 2010.

Attracting and retaining the right people, and raising the status of social care as a profession, is key to delivering quality care. That is why we have taken action to protect our social care services, including paying the real Living Wage to adult care workers, a move that has benefited up to 40,000 care workers.

And our living wage commitment will be extended to cover sleepover hours during 2018-19.

The work we have begun with our major stakeholders on all three Parts of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan is designed to ensure safe, sustainable and high quality services right across our NHS, social care and primary care services. The Part 2 recommendations, which were published in December 2017, cover the social care workforce and will directly address recruitment challenges, promote career pathways and improve workforce development in social care.

This specific information is not held centrally. In terms of health and social care more generally, the Scottish Government is working to develop a medium term financial framework, within the context of the budget settlement that the Scottish Government receives. This will be to outline the broad direction for the NHS and care services to meet the changing needs of the people of Scotland, including taking account of such demographic factors and shifting the balance of care towards community health services.

At a local level, Integration Authorities are responsible for strategic planning of adult social care services. The Scottish Government is providing analytical support in local partnerships to support analysis of demand for social care support.

Since April, Integration Authorities have new responsibilities under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 for local carer strategies setting out carer support available locally, including short breaks, and an assessment of demand. They are also responsible for publishing short breaks services statements providing information about short breaks available for both carers and those they care for.

The purpose of the Short Breaks Fund is to increase the range, availability and choice of short breaks for carers and the people they care for, through the development and delivery of short breaks projects and services by third sector organisations.

The Scottish Government has funded Shared Care Scotland and Family Fund to manage the Short Breaks Fund. Shared Care Scotland manage three distinct schemes: Creative Breaks; Better Breaks and Time To Live. Family Fund manage a scheme called Take a Break.

Shared Care Scotland is allocated £2.3m annually by the Scottish Government to operates three distinct programmes: Better Breaks; Creative Breaks and Time to Live. More information can be found here: and also at .

The Better Breaks programme provides 12 month grants to third sector organisations to develop and deliver short breaks projects and services for children and young people with disabilities (aged 20 and under), and their carers (adult carers and/or young carers).

More information can be found here: .

Creative Breaks provides 12 month grants to third sector organisations to develop and deliver short breaks projects and services for carers of adults(aged 21 years and over), carers of older people (aged 65 years and over), young carers (caring for children or adults), and those that they care for. This programme opens for applications in April each year.

More information can be found here: .

A snapshot of the impact ‘Creative Breaks’ had during 2016–2017 can be found here .

The Time to Live programme provides grant funding to carers organisations (usually carers centres) to develop and deliver micro grants schemes for carers of adults (aged 21 years and over), carers of older people (aged 65 years and older) and young carers. TTL enables carers to access funds and support to help them take short breaks that meet their needs. This programme is not open to unsolicited applications. More information can be found here: .

Family Fund’s ‘Take a Break’ programme is allocated £700K annually by the Scottish Government. It is Scotland’s short break fund for disabled children and their families. It aims to provide families with the choice and opportunity to access a single or ongoing break from caring. Take a Break grants enable families caring for a disabled or seriously ill child or young person to have the opportunity to choose how they would like to take a break, with a view to improving the quality of life, health and wellbeing of the whole family. More information can be found here: .

Numbers of Consultants working in Surgical Specialities have increased by 41.7% during the lifetime of this government.

Information on consultant vacancy figures, of which consultants working in surgical specialities is a sub category, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following web links:

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Information on how many NHS surgeon positions remained unfilled in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS Board, is not centrally held. Specific local information may be available from individual NHSScotland Boards.