Chamber and committees

The HIV Transmission Elimination Proposal, led by Professor Rak Nandwani (the then co-chair of the Scottish Health Protection Network Strategic Leads) was published on 1 December 2022 and can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ending-hiv-transmission-scotland-2030/

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 .

Once developed for the NHS this policy can be used/adapted for other sectors, such as social care.

Work is currently underway in the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group to assess needs and agree priority actions in relation to the public health workforce, taking into account previous recommendations and learning from the pandemic. The Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Scottish Directors of Public Health Localised Working Programme is currently working with three pathfinder sites to improve local access to specialist public health advice and forms a collaboration between PHS, local health boards and joint partners, including COSLA. The programme aims to achieve better outcomes for communities through leading and supporting action on inequalities and the determinants of health.

A recent review of the Scottish Health Protection Network has also identified learning from the pandemic and considered how to ensure a strengthened health protection function for Scotland going forward.

Work is currently underway in the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group to assess needs and agree priority actions in relation to the public health workforce. Three additional Public Health training places for trainee doctors have been created in recent years following recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group. While this may seem like a modest increase, it is relative to the specialty’s training establishment i.e. there were 35 established training places prior to the creation of those three extra posts. This will continue to be reviewed as part of public health workforce planning.

Work is currently underway in the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group to assess needs and agree priority actions in relation to the public health workforce. A programme of leadership development has already started with local Directors and Deputy Directors of Public Health, along with Public Health Scotland, working with Scottish Government. A further programme of succession planning will be developed this year.

Scottish Directors of Public Health have been prioritised within the Scottish Government Leading to Change Programme for bespoke and sustainable leadership development support. Their knowledge, expertise and leadership are recognised as central to Scotland’s success in the recovery and re-building of the health of the nation post COVID.

Within Leading to Change we are also developing a programme of NHS Board CEO, Executive and Director Succession Planning. The Succession Planning workstream aims to create a diverse, values driven senior health workforce, by supporting existing and aspiring CEOs, Executives and Directors, and developing and implementing a consistent national approach to NHS Board Succession Planning that ensures a pipeline of candidates for future senior leadership roles, who are equipped to realise our ambitions as set out in the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan. We have created a Leadership Success Profile (LSP) for NHS CEO roles and will be creating an LSP for Executive and Director level roles in early 2023.

An expert Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy Working Group has been established to progress this action.

We understand the importance of appropriate staffing to provide high quality care for people with chronic pain. As set out in our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care published in March 2022, we are committed to supporting the delivery of new training pathways for pain management to enhance and expand our pain-skilled workforce.

In July 2022 we published our Framework for Pain Management Service Delivery – Implementation Plan which sets out the actions we are taking to improve care and support for people with chronic pain, including through developing the pain management workforce. In support of this we have established a new national multi-disciplinary Chronic Pain Education Group which is focused on developing and promoting resources to enhance the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals across Scotland.

In addition, we are working with the Faculty for Pain Medicine to support the development of new credentials to increase the availability of pain management specialists across our NHS. We are also supporting work to develop a credential for Advanced Care Practitioners in pain management which will support GPs, paramedics, Allied Healthcare Professionals and other key roles gain the knowledge and skills to provide holistic, effective support for people with chronic pain in their communities.

The National Clinical Skills for pharmacists programme supports registered pharmacists take on new and extended clinical roles, however it is the Independent Prescriber course which allows community pharmacists to qualify as Independent Prescribers. In 2020-2021 NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) commissioned a total of 115 Independent Prescriber (IP) places for Community Pharmacists to undertake an IP qualification during 2021.

In 2021-2022 NES commissioned a total of 222 IP places for Community Pharmacists to undertake an IP qualification during 2022.

The Pharmacist Independent Prescribing qualification takes on average 12 months to complete and courses run 4 times a year, therefore to date 111 community pharmacists from these cohorts have qualified as an Independent Prescriber.

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/ .

Information on the number of times that the rshp.scot website has been accessed can be found at https://mailchi.mp/8e809fa117cf/rshp-resource-network-june22 . This information does not distinguish whether it was a teacher accessing the resource. Therefore the information specifically requested is not held centrally.