Chamber and committees

The information on how many Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff there have been in each year since 2007 can be found: CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The staff in post tab provides quarterly data for CAMHS workforce.

The Women’s Health Plan sets out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.

The Plan includes actions to develop a menopause/menstrual health policy for NHS Scotland staff in 2023. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13514 on 16 January 2023 for an update on the development of a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Plan also contains an action to encourage Health Boards to participate in the Equally Safe at Work accreditation scheme. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13539 on 23 January 2023 for an update on progress on this action.

The Race Equality Immediate Priorities Plan (IPP) Annex B contains actions under systemic recommendation 4 (Fair Work Practices) to support minority ethnic staff. Data recommendations 10, 11 and 14 also contain actions on monitoring workforce data, NHS workforce data and accountability and governance. These are published online at: Annex B - Immediate Priorities for Race Equality 2021-23 - Race equality: immediate priorities plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .’

To date, the NHSScotland ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies Programme has refreshed the following PIN policies and process:

• Attendance
• Bullying and Harassment
• Capability
• Conduct
• Grievance
• Workforce Policies Investigation Process

In addition, the NHSScotland Whistleblowing Policy that includes the National Whistleblowing Standards was published in April 2021.

Following a pause due to the pandemic, the ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies programme of work formally restarted in June 2022. The review of the suite of Supporting the Work-Life Balance Policies that include flexible working arrangements and the Homeworking Policy (now known as the NHSScotland Flexible Work Location Policy) is currently at an advanced stage.

The programme policy development schedule is reviewed at each stage to enable response to service pressures and prioritised policy needs. Requests for new policies are considered by the ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies Programme Board.

The information on how many additional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff has been recruited by the Scottish Government in each year since 2007 is not centrally held.

The information on CAMHS workforce staff in post can be found in the following link: CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The Employee Turnover tab gives the number of joiners and leavers from year ending March 2012 to March 2022. Data for preceding years are not available.

Joiners are employees who are in post as at 31 March of a particular year and were not in post at 31 March of the previous year.

Leavers are employees who were in post as at 31 March of the previous year and not in post at 31 March year of the present year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13517 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 https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The evaluation of the national induction framework will remain open until at least the end of March to allow as many people as possible to take part.

As the regulator for social services, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) have also designed and implemented a feedback mechanism which will remain in place to enable continuous improvement to the framework.

Initial implementation will begin in Spring 2023. This phase is expected to last for a period of 12-18 months.

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

The following table sets out the number of people who participated in Scotland's Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) course, from 2021 to January 2023.

The Scottish Government has provided £80,000 of funding for Talk Lipoedema over financial years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 to develop the Scoping Report on Lipoedema Care in Scotland, providing a welcome insight into Lipoedema services and to enhance their important work supporting people across Scotland with this condition.

This funding has also enabled the organisation to raise awareness through their website with updated information for both the public and professionals including a video on the diagnosis of lipoedema. Additionally, the funding has been used by the organisation to facilitate a pilot in NHS Lanarkshire ‘Living Well with Lipoedema’ exploring innovative, person-centred self-management programmes and developing online self-management resources.

The Women’s Health Plan focusses on a specific set of priorities and whilst lipoedema is not specifically mentioned in the priorities for this iteration of the Plan we do recognise that many women are significantly affected by the condition.

The Plan acknowledges the need to improve access to information for women about their health and to support this we launched the NHS Inform Women’s Health Platform. We are currently finalising content on Lipoedema which will be included on the platform shortly.