Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold official data on the unregistered workforce. However we do know that there were at least 4,869 Personal Assistants (PA’s) providing social care support to adults who were in receipt of either Self-directed support option 1 or from Independent Living Fund Scotland in 2021.

This data was captured from those Personal Assistants who applied for the Scottish Government Covid-19 thankyou payment which can be found here PA Programme Board Resources - Self Directed Support Scotland | Self Directed Support Scotland (sdsscotland.org.uk) .

A PA Programme Board was established in 2021 with a membership from the public, third sector and organisation’s representing disabilities. A co-produced Work Plan was developed which includes objectives to understand, grow and support the PA workforce including developing better research of this little known workforce.

The Personal Assistant workforce are employed by the person with social care needs or their family. The employer may also use funding from a variety of public sources as well as self-funding, as such there is no locus for SG to mandate the collection of this data. However, there will be an option to count all those non family member PAs from 2024 onwards as this workforce must be PVG checked from that date.

There has been a successful application for a PHD funded by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. This position will start in October and will research PA assistance for disabled people, changing labour markets and social care reform. The PA Programme Board will be a collaborative partner with Glasgow University.

To complement the local support available for the mental health and wellbeing of the health and social care workforce, the Scottish Government are continuing to provide a range of resources including the National Wellbeing Hub, a 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, confidential mental health treatment through the Workforce Specialist Service, Coaching for Wellbeing and funding for additional local psychological support. We are also working closely with NHS Boards to support a range of local initiatives designed to meet the basic and practical needs of Doctors in Training, and their teams. This includes access to quiet spaces to support health and wellbeing, and the installation of lockers.

Our ongoing response will be informed by the Improving Wellbeing and Workforce Cultures Strategy which will be launched in 2023. The strategy is a commitment from the Scottish Government to drive a supportive and enabling culture for people working in health, social care and social work across wellbeing, leadership and equalities.

As outlined in the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care, we have committed to funding up to £10 million on a phased approach which will support increased regional working, workforce recruitment and maximise capacity across the existing workforce through initiatives like non-medical prescribing and treatment closer to home. Over 2022, we have provided £1.5 million across Scotland, and the National Oncology Taskforce will shortly be considering recommendations to support sustainability of SACT services. As agreed with the regional cancer networks and Health Boards, these funds are being used to support SACT services.

The National Oncology Taskforce will shortly be considering recommendations to support sustainability of SACT services.

In 2022-23 the Scottish Government spent £2,761,815 on health and social care staff wellbeing. In addition to this, the Scottish Government intend to spend a further £1,397,475 on health and social care staff wellbeing in the remainder of this financial year.

We do not hold a detailed breakdown of spending at the level requested.

The NHS National Ethnic Minority Forum (EMF) was established in April 2021 and aims amplify the voices of ethnic minority staff across the health service and tackle issues of systemic racism. EMF members also use their expertise to shape policy and practice in areas such as the Leading to Change Programme. We continue to work closely with the EMF on their priorities for 2023-24:

• the development of a ‘How to Talk about Race’ in the workplace guide
• considering support for staff reporting incidents of racial abuse/harassment
• supporting the development of anti-racism training resources for staff (an action that Scottish Government are taking forward).

Finally, I had the pleasure of attending an in-person meeting of the EMF on the 5 th October 2022. I made it clear that I will continue to actively support the chair and members in delivering their aims objectives.

I refer the member to the answers to question S6W-13542 on 20 January 2023 and S6W-13509 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

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors. Our approach reflects a combination of the following measures; the annual iMatter survey, feedback from local and national staffside and other stakeholder channels, academic research, data collected by regulators and partners and evaluation of nationally-led initiatives. In addition, the Wellbeing Champions Network is now well-established to provide feedback on areas of priority need, and to share best practice across health, social care and social work organisations.

We are continuing to work with leaders across health, social care and social work, as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff. We are working on a range of local initiatives designed to meet the basic and practical needs of staff, and their teams. This includes access to quiet spaces to support health and wellbeing, and the installation of lockers.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for the Scottish Social Services Council. The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government reviewed the Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS), Health Protection (HP) and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Workforce in 2022, as part of the work formulating evidence towards the recently published ‘Infection Prevention Workforce: Strategic Plan 2022-2024’. The plan is about building capacity and capability of AMS, HP (with relevance to IPC) and IPC workforce in all health and care settings, to enable recovery and development. It reflects on the need for planning post pandemic across all health and care, and as part of the wider system infection management needs. Following a situational analysis, recommendations in the plan include:

• identifying the current specialist workforce across health and care to assess and address demands (current and future) and potential service gaps, to allow for succession planning and sustainability.
• reviewing and addressing current IPC capability within the AMS and HP Workforce.
• reviewing current educational and career pathways and identify key priorities in order to meet future and evolving needs to support service delivery.
• progressing the work for a national surveillance eSystem for IPC within secondary care, with the support of local and national stakeholders.
• identifying the requirements for new/emerging local/national specialist roles, which will support phased implementation of a sustainable workforce.
• that each Board should consider whether services should be led by a clinical leader with a focus on AMR, HAI and IPC and with accountability to the executive team within a board, or partnership, to ensure safe and effective clinical service delivery.