Chamber and committees

The national adult social care recruitment campaign, There’s More to Care Than Caring, ran from 8 November 2021 to 2 January 2022 and included digital, press, out of home and radio advertising, supported by virtual workshops, partnerships and public relations activity.

The campaign was evaluated by an independent research agency and results showed 48 per cent awareness of the campaign amongst the overall target audience, exceeding the campaign target of 40 per cent.

This awareness converted into action with 11 per cent of those who had seen or heard of the campaign saying they had applied for or got a job in adult social care as a result. In addition almost 39,500 visited the Care to Care website during the campaign period.

The campaign this year is due to run from 23 January 2023 to 5 March 2023 and will include out of home, radio and digital advertising, as well as a partnership with STV, supported by field, partnership and public relations activity.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) launched a new system for Continuous Professional Learning (CPL), in October 2020. The change allows for a more flexible approach to recording learning, doing so in a way which works best for registered workers and gives employers more of a role in reviewing registrants’ learning.

Through SSSC social services workers have access to free learning resources, interactive webinars that support CPL and career development and new information on nationally recognised learning resources endorsed by SSSC all of which will support CPL.

Pay for staff in the Senior Civil Service is reserved and operates within the UK Cabinet Office pay and performance management framework.

As at 30 November 2022, a total of 41 staff earning over £100,000 per annum were employed in Core Scottish Government at a total salary cost of £4,552,993. This represents 0.45% of the total number of staff employed in Core Scottish Government. The following table provides a breakdown by Directorate General area.

Local authorities are responsible for the education of all pupils who are registered within their school rolls.

It is for teachers, schools and local authorities to determine how best to deliver learning and teaching on any topic and subject, in line with Curriculum for Excellence. We expect teachers to use their professional judgement, experience and understanding of their pupils to respond sensitively to complex and challenging issues.

The national relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) resources are part of a wider package of resources available to all schools and teachers to support delivery of RSHP education. A summary of wider resources in use across Scotland is available on Education Scotland's National Improvement Hub at https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/a-summary-of-rshp-resources/ .

Work through the Fair Work in Social Care Group has developed a set of minimum standards for terms and conditions reflecting Fair Work principles. Work to investigate how these standards can be implemented within devolved powers is being taken forward in collaboration with key stakeholders.

We are working with sector stakeholders to embed the principles of Effective Voice in social care, to enable staff to engage in meaningful, constructive dialogue within their employers to help promote fair working conditions, develop best practice, and deliver high quality care.

The Fair Work in Social Care Group, including key Social Care stakeholders, Trade Unions, representative sector organisations, and care providers, developed an Effective Voice Framework informed by the lived experience of staff. The Framework will support employers and employees to assess the standard of Effective Voice in their workplace and take steps to enhance it, if necessary.

A project to trial this Framework in social care settings will begin in early 2023.

Staff across a wide range of services play a role in growing community mental health resilience and directing social prescribing, While it is not possible to quantify the total number of staff contributing to this objective, Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-27 outlined our commitment to funding 800 additional mental health workers in key settings, including A&Es, GP practices, police station custody suite and prisons – ensuring local provision and support is at the heart of our plans. At the end of the commitment, an additional 958.9 whole time equivalent (WTE) mental health roles have been filled using Action 15 funding. This exceeds the original commitment and includes an additional 356.1 WTE mental health workers recruited to GP practices.

We have also prioritised investment through the Primary Care Improvement Fund (PCIF). At March 2022, 260 WTE mental health workers had been recruited to primary care settings. The PCIF also funds Community Link Workers (CLWs) as part of primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). CLWs also play a role in social prescribing by enabling people to identify and access relevant resources within their community. At March 2022, 249 WTE CLWs had been recruited to support GP practices.

Since 2021, we have invested £36 million in our Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. We have made over 1,800 awards to grassroots community projects focused on prevention and early intervention, with the aim of building capacity within community organisations to support the mental health and wellbeing of individuals.

We are continuing to invest in community-based supports for children, young people and families, with a further £15 million being provided this year. These services benefitted over 38,000 children, young people, parents and carers in the first six months of this year alone. Many of these services include links to local sport and recreation activities, which capitalise on the benefits of young people being active.

The target intake for nursing and midwifery have seen 10 consecutive years of increases but we recognise that undergraduate entry programmes are just one route into these two critical professions in our NHS.

The Scottish Government alongside a wide range of stakeholders including NHS Boards, Higher Education Institutions and Skills Development Scotland is taking forward work to develop alternative career pathways into these professions including potential apprenticeship models and other ‘earn as you learn’ routes that will widen access into the profession to those individuals who may not choose the undergraduate route. These developments will allow people to study and work at the same time as they progress their career. These new routes aim to attract new employees to NHS Scotland and at the same time offer existing staff opportunities to develop and progress towards registered roles.

The majority of spend relating to the Enhanced Psychological Practice programme relates to salaried posts in NHS Health Boards, creating additional capacity within the workforce and enabling delivery of evidence based psychological interventions at enhanced level. The allocated spend to date is as follows (please note numbers of learners/practitioners are cumulative and there are ongoing discussions with partners about the programme for future years):

2021-22 - £377,446

• £224,538 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for 20 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £152,908 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, eLearning development, teaching support and consultancy, learning resources

2022-23 - £2,193,767*

• £1,925,908 funding towards salaries/backfill for 18 months for up to 81 practitioners – learner phase followed by post qualification consolidation phase
• £267,859 towards development and delivery of education and training, and programme infrastructure – NES staffing, teaching support and consultancy, eLearning development, SQA fees and learning resources

*salary costs included in this figure are based on 2021-22 Agenda for Change rates and will need to be amended on confirmation of the Pay Award for 2022-23.

Within the South Region of Forestry and Land Scotland, since 2007, the following estimated number of trees (based on normal planting densities per hectare), have been planted by Forestry and Land Scotland in each Local Authority Area: