Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1298 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S6W-13540

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced the Flying Finish initiative across all NHS boards in order to help retain older workers.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) are taking steps to introduce Flying Finish across NHS Boards, to benefit the workforce and the service. Work has already taken place to put in place a national Retire & Return policy within the NHS.

On 30 August 2022 the Interim National Arrangements on Retire & Return was announced, which offers a process that supports retiring employees to return to employment in their health board on a part time basis, should they wish to do so. The process enables retiring employees to continue employment that is suitable to them and the service, taking a person-centred approach which supports and manages the retirement in a tailored and individual way.

Question reference: S6W-13539

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with NHS boards to gain Equally Safe at Work accreditation.

Equally Safe at Work is an innovative employer accreditation programme developed by Close the Gap, Scotland’s policy advocacy organisation working on women’s labour market equality. It supports employers to improve their employment practice to advance gender equality at work and prevent violence against women.

Public Health Scotland, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and Healthcare Improvement Scotland are taking part in this pilot which commenced in July 2022 and will take approximately one year to complete. A further five Health Boards, NHS Borders, NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney, National Education Scotland and NHS Fife, are part of the shadow group.

Question reference: S6W-13530

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the health and social care workforce will grow by 1% over the next five years.

We remain committed to the increasing in the Health and Social Care workforce by 1% over the next 5 years, as outlined within the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care.

NHS Scotland official workforce statistics published on 06 December 2022 show that staffing levels have increased by over 2,800 permanent whole time equivalent in the last year (or 1.8% of the NHS Scotland workforce) – representing 10 consecutive years of staffing growth.

Question reference: S6W-13528

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has developed national workforce strategies for the Allied Health Professional (AHP) and Health Care Science (HCS) workforce.

In March 2022 the Scottish Government published The National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland. This Strategy sets out a framework to shape our health and social care which includes Allied Health Professionals and Healthcare Scientists, over the next decade, placing training, wellbeing, job satisfaction and Fair Work at its heart. As part of the Strategy’s work, the Scottish Government has undertaken an AHP Workforce and Education Policy Review and a Healthcare Science Baseline Education Review.

Question reference: S6W-13531

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have joined the health and social care workforce through national schemes, such as modern apprenticeships, in each year since 2007, broken down by (a) scheme and (b) NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-13535

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to build on the work outlined in its Tackling race inequality in employment: statement in order to ensure that NHS Scotland has equitable and inclusive recruitment, retention, representation and promotion practices.

‘A Fairer Scotland for All: An Anti-Racist Employment Strategy was published on 9 December 2022 and sets out the actions the Scottish Government will take and how it will work with employers to help make Scotland’s workplaces more diverse, fair and inclusive.

The strategy will support NHS and other employers to:

improve their collection of workforce data, including reporting their pay gap, and take action on the findings
take an anti-racist approach to remove barriers in their recruitment, retention and progression practices to improve representation of workers
drive cultural, attitudinal and organisational change through building an understanding of the impact of institutional racism and the processes and practices in an organisation that lead to the unfair treatment of people on the basis of race.’

Question reference: S6W-13694

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to embed the Principles of Good Transitions, as a good practice framework for transitions for people with neurological conditions.

I refer the member to the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025 – Midpoint Progress Report , which was published on 13 July 2022. This report provides an update on the progress under each of the five aims in the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025.

Specifically, page 13 of the report details a project we funded to develop principles of good transition across the lifespan of people with neurological conditions, using a range of methodologies.

More widely, Scottish Government will introduce Scotland’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy in this Parliamentary term to ensure there is a joined-up approach to supporting our young people with disabilities as they make the transition to adult life. The scope of the Strategy will be developed through engagement with people with lived experience of transitions in all areas of life, including health care. We will begin progressing external engagement on the Strategy in early 2023.

Question reference: S6W-13715

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to improve access to (a) healthcare and (b) support for those living with a neurological condition.

In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care.

Despite the disruption to health and social care services during the pandemic, we have sustained our efforts to deliver the 17 commitments of the Framework. Since October 2020 we have we have awarded £2.1 million to fund innovative projects by NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and third sector organisations working to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions.

I further refer the member to the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025 – Midpoint Progress Report , which was published on 13 July 2022. This report provides an update on the progress under each of the five aims in the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025.

Question reference: S6W-13695

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done to ensure the full implementation of self-directed support for people with neurological conditions.

In 2022-23 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three information resources to support key workers and carers to guide people with neurological conditions to access Self-Directed Support (SDS).

The resources have been produced in conjunction with Self-Directed Support Scotland and are designed to raise awareness and understanding of SDS amongst three groups who are in a position to support people living with a neurological condition to access it: health and social care professionals, voluntary sector workers, and parents/carers of children with neurological conditions.

The resources were published by the NAoS in January 2023 at www.scottishneurological.org.uk and comprise:

Question reference: S6W-13690

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 23 January 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with (a) third sector and (b) carer organisations to help ensure that carers of people with neurological conditions are aware of their rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016.

In 2021 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three new ‘What to Expect’ information guides for carers of people with neurological conditions. These guides include information on carers’ rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and comprise:

The guides were endorsed by the Coalition of Carers and are available at the NAoS website: https://www.scottishneurological.org.uk

We are currently supporting the NAoS to undertake a project in early 2023 to work with carers centres assessing current resources and identifying gaps that still need to be addressed regarding information, training and signposting.