Chamber and committees

Scottish Water does not maintain information by parliamentary region or by local authority, however was able to extract leakage data for the equivalent area which is a close match to the South Scotland parliamentary region. A copy of the table which provides total leakage volumes in Mega litres per day for each of the months since April 2016 is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib Number 63968).

The National Induction Framework was created as a resource for providers and staff as a good practice example. It was developed in conjunction with the sector, to enhance and support an employer’s own induction processes. It should complement existing induction processes but it is not mandatory. The framework has been widely promoted to the sector by stakeholders to encourage its use.

The Scottish Government is represented on the Cross-Whitehall International Recruitment Steering Group chaired by the Department of Health and Social Care. The Steering Group provides national policy oversight on international supply activity, including the development of bilateral country to country agreements, ensuring consistent ethical practices in line with the International recruitment of health and social care personnel: Scottish Code of Practice - August 2022 (revised) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

For the Academic Year 2022-23 there are currently 1003 paramedic science students taking part in Scottish-Government commissioned education degree programmes.

Primary care training hubs model has been developed and is in operation in GP practices in NHS Lothian and NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is working with Health Boards and GP practices to continue to increase training capacity in primary care settings for GPs and the MDT workforce. This work will inform the future use of training hubs and will accommodate the significant planned increases to medical undergraduate, foundation and GP training places, as well as other staff groups, announced by the Scottish Government.

The Preparing for Work in Health and Social Care in Scotland Programme was developed by the NHS Scotland Academy and was launched on the 17 December 2022. Within the programme there are 8 training modules, supporting those new to the Health and Social Care employment to deliver safe, effective, person-centred care.

The resources are designed to support local induction and are subject to regular review to ensure quality and currency of content

The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to consider workforce planning capacity and capability across services. We remain committed to building a culture of continuous learning and improvement in workforce planning, including through the guidance we developed to support the development of health board and HSCP three-year workforce plans. We have been exploring, with stakeholders, formal qualification and accreditation opportunities, we continue to take forward these discussions with partners in further and higher education, alongside the provision of in-house training.

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.

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

In 2021-22 funding of £91.4k was allocated to NHS Education for Scotland to support the Centre for Workforce Supply. The amount to be allocated in 2022-23 will be clarified at the financial year end.