The Fair Work Action Plan : Becoming a Leading Fair Work Nation by 2025 and the new Anti-Racist Employment Strategy – A Fairer Scotland For All , will both be published today.

It is this government’s ambition for Scotland to be a place where every person has the same opportunities to enter, sustain and progress in a safe, diverse and inclusive labour market.

Fair Work is a model for innovation and success, with many employers in Scotland already implementing fair work practices, addressing labour market inequalities, providing safe and secure working environments, and promoting inclusive workplace cultures. Through these practices, employers reap the benefits of a fairly rewarded, respected, diverse and inclusive workforce, in their performance, innovation and productivity.

Our ongoing work to reduce the Gender Pay Gap and the Disability Employment Gap is now incorporated within the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan, ensuring we better align on common issues such as pay and workers’ rights, whilst also allowing for action to be taken on discrete issues for respective protected characteristics.

The Anti-Racist Employment Strategy seeks to respond to the scale and complexity of the challenge of institutional racism, and will put anti-racism at the heart of what we do. Commitment to diversity and inclusion will not only help us to build a well-being economy, but it will also help us towards becoming a Fair Work nation, benefiting employers, workers and wider society.

Links

The Fair Work Action Plan : Becoming a Leading Fair Work Nation by 2025 - https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805252870

Anti-Racist Employment Strategy – A Fairer Scotland For All - https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781805252887

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has operational responsibility for the Modern Apprenticeship programme and administer funding, on behalf of the Scottish Government.

SDS have confirmed that no Modern Apprenticeship contracts have been terminated in line with clause (a) 22.1.2.1, (b) 22.1.2.2 and (c) 22.1.2.3, as set out under section 22, Termination for Reputational Damage in the Modern Apprenticeship Programme Conditions.

Today, we have published the Interim Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education, Research and Skills.

This publication sets out and seeks views on the interim Purpose and Principles and the topics that have to be explored to develop a plan for implementation that will deliver against them. This has been developed on the basis of feedback from previous research, reviews, reports and engagement, including the SFC Review of Coherent Provision and Sustainability and the National Strategy for Economic Transformation , and sets out the priorities that must guide our decision making in the face of a challenging set of imperatives for reform. A stakeholder engagement plan for the next phase of work and a discussion guide to support people to hold their own sessions on the interim Purpose and Principles are also published today, which is available in Gaelic or easy read format.

Primary care budgets provide additional funding to support core enabling programmes for primary care such as mental health, health inequalities and rural healthcare. Funds that are allocated are based on need, and final confirmation of spend will be included as part of the Scottish Government provisional outturn.

Escalation addresses complex issues and an element of judgement will always be required. The timeline will be driven by the actions within NHS Forth Valley’s Improvement Plan and their associated timelines. My expectation was for the Improvement Plan to be developed and presented to the Assurance Board for scrutiny at its first meeting, with a focus on completing immediate actions by the end of the year.

The overall aim of escalation and the related package of scrutiny and intervention put in place is to support any NHS Board, including NHS Forth Valley, to deliver the required improvement and address the underlying issues effectively and sustainably so that they can be safely de-escalated as swiftly as possible.

The Assurance Board, which has been established to bring direct SG oversight of NHS Forth Valley’s escalation, will provide advice to the Director General about the future escalation status of NHS Forth Valley, including criteria for de-escalation.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that the NHS in Scotland delivers high quality, safe, effective and person-centred care to all patients, every time they access health services. The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) continues to be implemented in every NHS Board, including NHS Forth Valley. It is designed to improve the safety of care. It is vital for patients to have confidence that when they access any part of the healthcare system, they will receive the best available treatment without fear of harm.

The Stage 4 escalation is not a reflection of the staff working tirelessly to provide care for the population of Forth Valley. The wellbeing and support for staff is paramount. This escalation decision has been made to allow the leadership team to take forward the transformational change required to improve the culture and leadership, but with the appropriate additional support through the Assurance Board, to ensure effective and efficient change which they have not been able to implement to date. NHS Forth Valley are responsible for delivering improvement against an agreed Plan, and support will be provided to assist NHS Forth Valley in delivery.

If staff do wish to raise concerns during this time then they should be supported to do so and they should be protected throughout the process and not suffer any harm as a result of speaking up. Boards are expected to investigate concerns fairly and appropriately.

The information requested on what percentage of the total number of doctors have permanently left NHS Scotland in each of the last five years is not centrally available. We do not hold data on the number of staff that have permanently left NHS Scotland.

Information on the number of leavers by financial year, broken down by job family and NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Scottish Government is aware of the importance of rural bus services and is committed, in conjunction with operators and local authorities, to looking at ways of improving services. I recently convened the first Bus Taskforce to bring key players in the sector together to make bus travel a more attractive choice for passengers through joint commitments to reform and improve bus services.

We are supporting bus use through the under 22s free bus travel scheme, which means that around half of Scotland’s population are now eligible for free bus travel. As of 21 November, 71.6% of eligible children and young people in Fife had an active National Entitlement Card allowing them to access the Young Persons' Free Bus Travel Scheme, and those cardholders have already made over 2.6 million journeys.

We continue to provide financial support for bus services to keep services more extensive and fares more affordable than would otherwise be the case. Payments are based on the distance buses are operated, which is a particular advantage in rural areas where the routes are generally longer. Funding is also provided to local authorities in their annual settlement to support services they consider socially necessary and for community transport services, which can play an important role in rural transport networks.

In addition, the Scottish Government is supporting a number of local projects within Fife. This includes: multi operator ticketing schemes such as the ABC scheme and OneTicket; investing in the the University of St Andrews “MaaSterplan” pilot which aims to increase the utilisation of the existing Go-Flexi Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) service; and the £1.6 million award from the Bus Partnership Fund to Fife Bus Partnership to appraise bus priority options along key corridors in Fife.

We are working closely with NatureScot and Scottish Forestry in exploring the best approach to developing a new National Register of Ancient Woodlands, which will be published when that work is complete. A new National Register of Ancient Woodlands is part of a suite of initiatives that will be underpinned by a new biodiversity strategy which we recently consulted on this summer.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12413 on 9 December 2022. 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