Chamber and committees

This is a matter for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The requested information on retirement numbers is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information is not available by reason for leaving or destination.

Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found (turnover tab) here: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/01-march-2022-workforce/dashboards/nhsscotland-workforce/?pageid=6429

Health Boards are responsible for conducting pre-retirement interviews and no data is held on this centrally. The Scottish Government would expect Boards to ensure that managers engage with staff at all points within their career as a matter of good practice, including prior to retirement to discuss staff experience and career journeys.

The Scottish Government's 'Supporting the work-life balance' PIN Policy contains provisions for supporting staff approaching retirement, including the opportunity to attend a pre-retirement course where they will have access to a wide range of information to support their retirement planning: https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2015/07/supporting-worklife-balance-partnership-information-network-policies/documents/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/supporting-work-life-balance-pin-policy-july-2015/govscot%3Adocument/00481986.pdf

Following receipt of the Royal College of Nursing's recent 'Nursing Workforce in Scotland' report, I was fortunate to attend a roundtable event on 30 March, hosted by the RCN, to hear directly from nurses on their priorities and concerns. These discussions will inform work with Health Boards to explore what more can be done to ensure even greater workforce flexibility.

The Scottish Government does not currently have plans to conduct an under 16 cancer patient survey. The Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer published a strategy in September 2021, ‘ Collaborative and Compassionate Cancer Care ’, which commits to improving services nationally and supporting a consistent approach to care and treatment across the country for children and young people up to the age of 25. This strategy was developed through consultation with service users, parents and carers, partner organisations and NHS Scotland staff.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

NHS Boards are responsible for managing their resources to meet the needs of their population’s workforce and in line with local and national priorities.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.

The numbers of Community First Responders (CFRs) that were allocated to and attended incidents in the last financial year are presented in the table below. For safety reasons as a result of Covid, Community First Responders were stood down for a six month period in 2020. The required training for remobilisation of all volunteers and CFR schemes extended into 2021.

Please note that if two Community First Responders were allocated to the same incident, then they will both be counted.

The Minister for Equalities and Older People has invited Hourglass to meet with her to discuss funding for its elder abuse helpline. Hourglass have yet to suggest a date to meet.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08411 on 17 May 2022. 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 .

There are currently 837 Community First Responders. The Scottish Ambulance Service maintain a rolling database of CFRs so do not hold historic figures.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guideline 122 on the prevention and management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) was first published in December 2010. Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), of which SIGN is a part, carried out awareness raising activity following publication which included the following:

• As an aid to standardising the information provided to patients on VTE across Scotland, the text of the model patient advice leaflets on DVT, which the Chief Medical Officer sent to all NHS Boards in January 2008, was included in appendices to the guideline.
• In April 2011 an information leaflet on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) for the general public was made available for download from the SIGN website. Distribution of paper copies was led by the SIGN Patient Involvement Officer.
• Work with its partners to embed the Guideline’s recommendations into general practice decision-making software.

Subsequently, Healthcare Improvement Scotland took forward work on VTE as part of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on spend relating to the above work.