Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-11628

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 7 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government when the (a) First Minister and (b) Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture last had (i) a meeting and (ii) correspondence with the (A) Edinburgh International Film Festival and (B) Edinburgh Filmhouse, and what issues were discussed.

As the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Edinburgh Filmhouse were both part of the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), any meetings and correspondence would have been with the CMI. The last meeting the First Minister had with the CMI was as part of the All Festivals Reception at Bute House on 8 August 2022. The last meeting the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture had with the CMI was as part of the Closing Gala of the EIFF 2022 on 20 August 2022. At both meetings, the 2022 EIFF programme and the value of the screen industry to Scotland were discussed.

In the last year, there has been no correspondence between the First Minister and the CMI. The CMI last wrote to the Cabinet Secretary on 26 September 2022, outlining the financial challenges it was facing. This correspondence also highlighted that the CMI had highlighted the matter to officials at the Scottish Government and with Creative Scotland and Edinburgh City Council.

Question reference: S6W-11405

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has updated its eHealth strategy 2014-2017, and whether it plans to produce a new strategy in the future.

Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy was published in April 2018 and refreshed in October 2021 supersedes the eHealth strategy 2014-2017. The Digital Health and Care Strategy embraces the aims and progress as previously set out but incorporates a broader and more collaborative aim for digital transformation across Health and Care.

A copy of the 2021 Digital Health and Care Strategy can be found on the Scottish Government website Digital health and care strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Question reference: S6W-11404

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 4 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made towards the implementation of the new electronic patient record system, including the timetable for roll-out, and how much funding has been allocated in the current financial year for this.

The 2021 Digital Health and Care strategy aims to make the right information available to all appropriate staff, when and where it is needed, building on the existing use of electronic patient record systems used by all Health Boards and GP practices. Whilst our strategy is for all health records to be held electronically, this will not result in a single, discrete electronic patient record that maintains all of the data from all of the health and care systems in Scotland in a single platform. Rather the focus is on allowing medical records to be stored, linked and shared securely according to the information needed. To achieve this most Health Boards have a Clinical Portal. This system works across organisational, regional and national boundaries to provide a timely transfer of information.

Clinical portals are in place across Scotland within acute services and provide access to multiple specialist clinical systems, supporting the better transfer of information between Health Boards and within services. Currently, Clinical Portals cover the West of Scotland Boards, the East of Scotland boards and the North of Scotland Boards are in the process of implementing their Clinical Portal. Further key national developments are also underway that we expect to further improve data sharing. The National Digital Platform has improved our digital health and care infrastructure, supported the development of key digital platforms for the covid-19 response and will now look to focus on linking different sources of data where that offers value. The significant investment in new GP IT system rollout is also underway to provide modern, secure GP IT systems which will support evolving models of care.

The key developments to improve the sharing of information within Health Boards is the GPIT Programme, the National Digital Platform, TRAK Care and Clinical Portal. The total funding provided for these key developments to improve data sharing this financial year is £3.743 million.

We are due to publish a Digital Health and Care Strategy Delivery Plan in the coming weeks that will be available to all Parliamentary Members. Additionally, we will also publish the first ever Data Strategy for Health and Care in early 2023, which will further set out our ambition for ensuring the right data is available to the right professionals at the right time.

Question reference: S6O-01514

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 November 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what further financial support it will provide to Argyll and Bute to help tackle depopulation of rural areas and islands.

Question reference: S6W-11662

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 2 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what has been done to progress its fair work plans, including the expansion of Fair Work First criteria to include the Living Wage.

Payment of the real Living Wage has always been central to our Fair Work First approach; the policy has been applied to some £4bn of public sector funding since 2019.

As committed to in the Bute House Agreement, we will introduce a requirement on public sector grants to pay at least the real Living Wage, and provide appropriate channels for effective voice, subject to limits on devolved competence. Ministers will confirm the detail of the conditionality in the coming weeks.

Fair Work is more important than ever, and we will use all the levers we can to drive fair work practices. Public sector funding should leverage wider benefits, support the development of a sustainable economic recovery and a successful wellbeing economy. One example will be the future civil engineering framework (£600m over four years) that includes a requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage.

Fair Work, including fair pay, is vital in tackling the cost crisis, in-work poverty and child poverty.

Question reference: S6W-11398

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many midwives there have been in the NHS in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board area, in each year since 2016, broken down by (i) headcount and (ii) full-time equivalent terms.

Question reference: S6W-11402

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the adequacy of NHS midwifery staffing in remote and rural areas.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that NHS Scotland has a skilled and sustainable workforce, we work in partnership with NHS Boards who are responsible for taking decisions about the configuration of midwifery services, commensurate with their local population needs.

We have taken a range of measures to support midwifery workforce supply, having grown the number of funded places on undergraduate midwifery programmes in Scotland by 20% over the last decade, to 301 funded places in 2022. Additionally, we offer a comprehensive and competitive package of student support, which is the best in the UK. In January 2022, we welcomed students from across Scotland on to a new, shortened midwifery training pathway at Edinburgh Napier University. These students will qualify as midwives in 20 months whilst continuing to work in their home regions, including in Scotland's remote and rural health boards.

In addition to our investment in education and training, we are providing direct recruitment support to all health boards across Scotland, through coordinated national marketing activity and support for ongoing international recruitment, including £8m to support the recruitment of up to 750 nurses, midwives and AHPs announced on 04 October 2022. We continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of recruitment and retention of healthcare staff in rural areas and have committed to undertaking further activity on remote and rural recruitment and retention, under the auspices of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Strategy.

Question reference: S6W-11401

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of student midwives who began training did not go on to graduate in each of the last five years for which complete figures are available.

Data showing the percentage of pre-registration students who were in the "inactive" training state on a three-year pre-registration midwifery programme over the last five years for which complete figures are available is found in the table below. “Inactive” refers to students who are neither in training nor have completed their programme – many students will return to their studies and go on to complete their programme.

Year	Total percentage of pre-registration midwifery students who were in inactive training state
2016	10%
2017	10%
2018	3%
2019	3%
2020	3%

Source: Published NES Official Workforce Statistics

Question reference: S6W-11399

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what the age profile of the NHS midwifery workforce was in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board, in (i) 2016 and (ii) the most recent year for which figures are available.

Information on what the age profile of the NHS midwifery workforce was in (a) Scotland and (b) each NHS board, in (i) 2016 and (ii) the most recent year can be found in the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

The Employment - demographic tab gives the percentage of the workforce over the age of 55 and the median age, this information can be broken down by board and job role from 2012.

Question reference: S6W-11400

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 October 2022
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 1 November 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) were accepted onto pre-registration midwifery training courses, (b) started their pre-registration midwifery training, (c) were at any stage in their pre-registration midwifery training, and (d) successfully completed their pre-registration midwifery training, in each academic year since 2016-17.

(a) The number of people accepted onto pre-registration midwifery training courses since the 2016-17 academic year is shown in the following table:

Year	Number of acceptances
2016	175
2017	210
2018	225
2019	255
2020	310
2021	235

Source: NES, based on proprietary UCAS report

(b) The number of people who started their pre-registration midwifery training is set out in the following table, which shows the number of students commencing pre-registration midwifery courses for the first time each year:

Year	Number of commencements
2016	179
2017	207
2018	243
2019	269
2020	308

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

(c) The following table shows the number of pre-registration midwifery students in training at 31 st October each year based on data extracted on 12 October 2021:

Year	Total number of pre-registration midwifery students
2016	540
2017	567
2018	615
2019	730
2020	857

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

(d) NHS Education for Scotland (NES) do not publish data on the number of people who successfully complete training in any given year. Instead, data is published on the percentage of pre-registration midwifery students for any given cohort who were in “complete” pre-training state on a three year programme. However, not all students from the same cohort will complete their programme in the same year as some will take more than 3 years to graduate – completion rises by a further 10% between 3 years 2 months and 5 years after commencing study. For this reason, it is not possible to provide numbers for students who have completed their pre-registration training in each academic year.

Cohorts 2013 – 2017, who were due to graduate from 2016 – 2020, are available in the percentage of pre-registration midwifery students who were in “complete” pre-training state on a 3 year programme based on information extracted on 12 October 2022. Later cohorts show a lower completion percentage as there has been less time for students to complete their programmes than for earlier cohorts.

Cohort	Total percentage of pre-registration midwifery completed training
2013	95%
2014	89%
2015	85%
2016	86%
2017	82%

Source: Published NES Official Workforce statistics

Chamber and committees