Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the interim report and thanks the Chair, Edel Harris, for her work. The Scottish Government is carefully considering these initial findings and looks forward to the publication of the final report in July 2025. A written response to that final report will be published within six months of its submission.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication and thanks the Chair, Edel Harris for her work. The Scottish Government is now carefully considering these initial findings, including the areas the Chair considers may be capable of early action. A written response to the final report will be published within six months, following assessment of policy and delivery implications and the affordability of proposals.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the interim report of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment and thanks the chair, Edel Harris for her work. The Scottish Government is now carefully considering these initial findings, including the areas the Chair considers may be capable of early action.

(a) The Scottish Government is continually working with health boards and local health and social care partnerships to reduce the number of delayed discharges.

(b) The Scottish Government issued to all 14 Health Boards on 12 September 2024 the ‘Once for Scotland Rehabilitation Approach self-assessment' to support practitioners in applying the six principles of good rehabilitation. Data collected through Board's self-assessment can be used to demonstrate the impact of rehabilitation services, as well as, raising its profile across health and social care services.

(c) Community Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) are pivoting the balance of care away from secondary care and physiotherapists are an integral part of this work.

The information requested on what the current vacancy rate is for physiotherapists within NHS Borders can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (Vacancy tab).

The Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare, and it is for each individual NHS Board to decide how best to utilise funding, to meet local health needs. There were 3,538.7 WTE working in physiotherapy in NHS Scotland at the end of September 2024. This represents an increase of 27.5% or 762.8 WTE over the last ten years. AHP numbers by NHS board are available at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

There were 3,538.7 WTE working in physiotherapy in NHS Scotland at the end of September 2024. This represents an increase of 27.5% or 762.8 WTE over the last ten years.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures that the people of Scotland are provided high-quality, safe, effective, accessible and person-centred care. However, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of NHS Boards, who will take into account local and national priorities when making recruitment decisions.

The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review, which includes physiotherapy, examined workforce and education issues. Progressive career models is one focus of the delivery of the review’s recommendations with the aim to improve and widen access to and increase the AHP workforce. Work is ongoing and an advisory group has been established to oversee the effective implementation of these recommendations.

As autonomous institutions, universities are responsible for their own course provision. With the exception of AHP controlled subjects i.e. Paramedic Science and Prosthetics & Orthotics, the Scottish Government does not direct individual universities on the allocation of funded places for eligible Scottish students, and it is for the universities to decide how to distribute its funded places between faculties and courses including physiotherapy.

We do however recognise that there are particular circumstances when the government will step into address specific workforce challenges. This is why in 2019, the Scottish Government committed to creating 225 more Advanced Musculo-Skeletal (MSK) Practitioners in Primary Care, by increasing the Physiotherapy workforce via the NHS Scotland Physiotherapy Funded Places Scheme. To date, 194 students have been funded towards meeting this target. Further information on the scheme is available at the following link.

NHS Scotland Physiotherapy funded places scheme | Turas | Learn

From 2024-25, Scottish Government are dedicating over £2.5 million annually to support health and social care staff wellbeing. This funding provides our workforce with access to psychological interventions and therapies, self-service resources through the National Wellbeing Hub and the National Wellbeing Helpline delivered by NHS 24. Registered staff also have access to confidential mental health services through the Workforce Specialist Service (WSS).

These resources play a vital role in helping the workforce manage mental health challenges and maintain their wellbeing, thus enhancing the quality of care they can provide. We will continue collaborating with leaders across the NHS to identify and address areas of stress and to explore additional actions to support staff including physiotherapists.

All primary teachers are generalists; therefore, they deliver the totality of the curriculum including PE.

Special schools may cater to primary and/or secondary and some special schools will therefore have primary qualified teachers that are able to offer PE.

Specialist PE teachers are predominantly based in secondary schools. The 2023 school staff census shows that, excluding virtual schools, one secondary school (0.3%) does not have a teacher whose main or other subject is PE.

In some local authorities physical education teachers that serve more than one school are recorded as centrally employed rather than allocated to individual schools. There are 25 FTE centrally employed teachers with PE as their main subject. Teachers recorded in this way are not included here, therefore the schools without a specialist P.E teacher may have access to centrally employed PE teachers.