Chamber and committees

Corporate governance and accountability arrangements for public bodies are in place and built around an established series of statutory and administrative mechanisms. These ensure consistent processes and parameters, based on the principles in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, within which public bodies are required to operate in terms of the stewardship of public money, propriety and ethics.

This is supplemented by framework agreements that Scottish Government has in place with most public bodies setting out respective roles and responsibilities, including requirement for bodies to set plans which contribute to achievement of the National Performance Framework outcomes, including tackling poverty. These activities and the sponsorship and relationship arrangements the Scottish Government has with public bodies helps ensure that Scottish Ministers priorities are delivered.

Scottish Government funding to local authorities is allocated using a relative needs-based formula, taking into account disadvantage and various other considerations, including levels of deprivation. While local authorities decide how to spend their available finances they are guided by a set of national and local outcomes, with the Equality Act and associated specific duties providing a framework to help local authorities pay due regard to equality issues.

Specifically, local authorises, and other certain public bodies, in Scotland are subject to the Fairer Scotland Duty, which places a legal responsibility on them to actively consider how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage, when making strategic decisions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-26524 on 23 April 2024. 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 .

The NHS Scotland Youth Academy aims to enhance opportunity for Scotland’s young people to join the health and social care workforce. It is currently engaged in developing learner pathways, raising awareness of career opportunities and creating connections between schools and employers.

The Youth Academy is bringing together local partners from public and third sector organisations to further opportunities for young people in Health and Social Care. A key focus of work includes the delivery, in collaboration with Skills Development Scotland (SDS), of a new pathway pilot qualification. It will prepare and inspire senior secondary school pupils for entering into careers in health and social care. The pathway pilot is running during the 2023-24 academic year across Highland, Tayside and Clydebank (NHS Golden Jubilee). Additionally, the Youth Academy is supporting the relaunch of the Future Nurse Programme. This aims to raise awareness of nursing careers with primary-aged young people in the Highlands and Clydebank initially.

The information requested on how many NHS staff have worked within the HR function of the NHS in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by NHS board is not centrally available.

Information on Administrative Services staff in post in the last 10 years, broken down by NHS Board, can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: 05 March 2024 Workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity of children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subject of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government understand the importance of sport and physical activity for women and girls in Scotland and the positive impact that has on their physical, mental, and social health across all stages in life.

Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week is an annual Scottish Government campaign which provides an opportunity to celebrate the ways in which women and girls take part in sport and physical activity and increases visibility and participation, highlighting the impact and health benefits it brings to their physical, mental and social health.

Active Schools, one of sportscotland’s flagship programmes, provides more opportunities for children and young people to take part in sport and physical activity, and develops effective pathways between schools and sports clubs in the local community.

In the 2022-23 academic year, the Active Schools programme successfully engaged with over 124,000 girls and young women who made over 2 million visits to Active Schools sport and physical activity sessions. This was an increase of 35% in the number of visits by girls and young women from the previous year.

Fit for Girls is a national programme developed in partnership between sportscotland and the Youth Sport Trust delivered to girls aged between 11 and 18. The workshops aim to inspire and empower girls and young women to create local change in their school, club, and community by developing their self-esteem and confidence so they can inspire more girls to start, maintain, or return to sport and physical activity.

a) The annual Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) measures physical activity in children from the ages 2 to 15, young people from the age of 16 are captured in adult data. Questions are asked on the subjects of walking, frequency of physical activity, physical activity at school, sports participation and sedentary time. Data is also captured on gender, age and socio-economic status, including deprivation.

b) The Scottish Government recognise the many benefits derived from being active, and investment is being used to drive equality, diversity and inclusion in the sporting system. The Scottish Government work with sportscotland, our national agency for sport, in partnerships with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport (SGBs), local authorities, leisure trusts, sports clubs and community organisations, schools, colleges and universities to provide opportunities for all to participate in sport and physical activity, to break down the barriers, financial or otherwise, that keep too many people from leading active lives.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is responsible for driving clinically-led service redesign and transformation in care across NHS Scotland. It consists of a number of national improvement programmes which are focussed on individual Scottish Government strategic priority areas.

The Programme Team workplans for 2024-25 are still in the process of being finalised and will be approved by Scottish Government.

A summary of the CfSD national programmes of work are as follows:

Modernising Patient Pathways (MPP) Programme: The MPP team deliver national improvements in planned care and support front line clinical teams to develop and implement sustainable improvements in service delivery. A key focus of the team is on developing national clinical pathways and supporting boards to increase the use of Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) and Discharge Patient Initiated Review (PIR).

National Elective Coordination Unit (NECU): The NECU team supports improved access to care by providing a consistent approach to national demand and capacity assessment and allocation as well as providing waiting list validation to ensure lists are up to date.

Unscheduled Care Programme: The Unscheduled Care Programme delivers support and develops improvement tools to help Boards to manage urgent and unscheduled care capacity and capability, including Optimising Flow Navigation Centre (FNC) services, hospital-at-home models and developing pathways to support care home access to urgent care.

Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis Programme: The Cancer Improvement and Earlier Diagnosis team drives NHS Scotland’s cancer strategic priorities and plays a key role in delivering Scotland’s 10-year cancer strategy, including working with Boards to ensure the Framework for Effective Cancer Management (FECM) is embedded.

National Endoscopy Programme: The National Endoscopy Programme supports Boards to deliver the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan. This includes supporting the deployment of the new Endoscopy Reporting System and working with NHS Scotland Academy to promote and maximise training opportunities around non-medical endoscopy and cystoscopy.

Innovation Programme: The Innovation team manages the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway, which is designed to identify and support national adoption of high-impact innovations at pace.

National Green Theatres Programme: The Green Theatres Programme supports NHS Boards to meet the net zero commitments for NHS Scotland through reducing the carbon footprint of theatres and delivering more environmentally sustainable surgery.

Planned Care Programme: The Planned Care Programme is responsible for monitoring planned care performance across all NHS Scotland Boards. It also leads national improvement work around Trauma and Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology and Radiology.

Tackling health inequalities and improving population health remain clear, ongoing aims of the Scottish Government. Through the Place and Wellbeing Programme we are supporting local action to tackle health inequalities by: supporting health boards to operate as effective anchor institutions; supporting community and voluntary organisations; and ensuring they and public sector partners have the support and resources to take positive action locally.

Working alongside Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Government Anchors workstream within the Place and Wellbeing Programme is supporting NHS boards to act as effective anchor institutions and build greater prosperity in our local communities. All NHS Boards have now submitted Anchors Strategic Plans setting out how they are planning to maximise their footprint as employer, procurer and owner of land and assets, to channel greater wealth into local communities, which in turn will help contribute to reducing health inequalities.

Community and voluntary organisations play a key role is supporting the health and wellbeing of local communities. We are working with them to provide fairer funding processes and increase access to resources that can support them to work locally alongside the public sector to help reduce inequalities.

Land and Assets is one of the three main areas of focus for the Anchors workstream of the Place and Wellbeing Programme. All NHS Boards submitted Anchor Strategic Plans in October 2023 setting out how they will maximise their footprint as owners of land and assets, for the benefit of their local population. NHS Boards have also submitted baseline metrics on their anchor activity, including the proportion of successful assets transfers to date relative to the number received.

We will use this feedback, working with NHS Scotland and the community sector, to understand what further support or guidance we can put in place at a national level to enable more community organisations to use, lease or take on NHS assets for the benefit of local communities.

I can confirm that NHS Boards have received financial and policy support to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. This support has been ongoing since the Bill was enacted. Each NHS Board has been provided with funding for Workforce Leads (proportionate to the size of the Board) to support preparations for the commencement of the Act. This funding has been extended for an additional year to cover the financial year 2024-2025.

In addition to this, the Scottish Government has produced statutory guidance, in collaboration with Health Boards and other key stakeholders, which has offered clarity and better understanding of each duty within the Act. The Scottish Government has engaged extensively with Health Boards over the past two years through in-person and online events and quarterly reporting.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to support NHS Boards, and its Healthcare Staffing Programme has provided support, including an advisor who works closely with each Board and hosting a network of meetings where Board representatives can come together and share learning.