Chamber and committees

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. There are currently 12 Special Advisers.

The Scottish Government has published a list of the Special Advisers and their specific portfolio responsibilities at: Special advisers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The number of undergraduate medical school places available since 2015, broken down by domicile, has been provided in the following table. As requested, these reflect the places available, rather than the eventual entrants.

The amount spent by NHS Boards on Family Health Services (FHS), which includes the four primary care contractors, is reported in the annual Cost Book published by Public Health Scotland. This information is publicly available on the PHS website: Costs Book publication - Costs Book - Finance within the NHS - Acute and emergency services - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland We would expect the 2023-24 data to be published in February 2025 and the 2024-25 data to be published in February 2026. The Scottish budget, including NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care is published on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Information on the number of vacancies for (a) paediatric nurses in NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) (Vacancy tab)

Information on the number of vacancies and vacancy rates for (b) neonatal nurses in not centrally collected.

Information on paediatric nursing vacancy rates across NHS Scotland in each of the last five years can be found in the following table:

The requested information on how many of the 2024 cohort of graduate (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses have secured jobs in NHS Scotland, and how many have not been able to secure a post is not centrally held.

Information on the number of nursing staff joining the NHS broken down by band, NHS board and specialty can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce (phase one) | Turas Data Intelligence (turnover tab)

The Scottish Government package of support for Scottish domiciled student nurses, midwives and paramedics remains the highest level of support offered in the UK.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this is dependant on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

The Chief Nursing Officer post is a valuable and integral part of the leadership team within the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates and across the health and care system. In the coming years against a backdrop of continuing financial pressures, the post holder will focus on the reform agenda for health and care services, leading the work required to meet the Nursing Vision 2030, whilst also contributing to wider Scottish Government objectives in relation to reducing child poverty, improving the economy and addressing climate change.

With that in mind, my officials have been considering how to ensure we attract the right calibre of candidate to this post whilst also providing them with the time necessary to achieve those goals. The Civil Service Commission has recently confirmed that it has granted an exception for this post which allows it to be advertised as a five year secondment opportunity instead of the usual two years.

Officials are now finalising the recruitment process arrangements with the Commission to ensure fair and open competition, and expect to be in a position to advertise the post by the end of August.

A copy of the associated data table has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib no. 65175 which provides information on the occupancy rates of acute specialty beds and all beds in hospitals between January 2023 and the end of December 2023. The data are broken down by quarter, NHS board and hospital. These data are from the Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) publication which is available on the Public Health Scotland website Methods used to produce this data release - Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Quarter ending 31 December 2023 - Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Publications - Public Health Scotland and provides further data on beds and hospital activity in Scotland along with definitions and data quality notes.

As set out in answer to question S6W-28317 on 19 July 2024, any unnecessary delay in hospital is unacceptable and below the standard we would expect. The Scottish Government recognises the relationship between crowding in A&E and increased risk of harm which is why we remain committed to delivering improved A&E performance.

Action is being taken to improve patient flow through our acute sites which will in turn reduce congestion within A&E and bring down waiting times. Through our Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme, we are working with Boards across Scotland to implement a range of initiatives such as improved escalation process and increased clinical support for care home and ambulance crews to avoid unnecessary admission to hospital.

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 .