Chamber and committees

It is of paramount importance that women receive safe and effective services during pregnancy. The Scottish Government welcomes NHS Highland’s announcement that the antenatal screening services in Argyll and Bute, which provide women with routine scans, will be implemented from the autumn of 2016. NHS Highland has looked at the feasibility of providing interim locum cover and has had discussions with neighbouring boards about temporary support for the local service, but these options have not been possible to date due to pressures on the availability of trained sonographers that are currently being experienced across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has no plans to reintroduce ringfencing for coordinator posts previously funded by the Violence Against Women Fund.

The financial arrangements between Lloyds Banking Group, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd and CalMac Ferries Ltd are commercially confidential.

The operating lease between Lloyds Banking Group and Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd for the MV Loch Seaforth has been agreed for an eight year period.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has an action plan in place to address recruitment and retention issues in the north division. This includes a dedicated continuing professional development adviser assigned to deliver a flexible programme for all staff including those who work with the service on a retained basis.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is developing an implementation plan for the five priorities set out in the 2020 Workforce Implementation Framework in line with ‘Everyone Matters’ which will be monitored by the service’s Staff Governance Committee. Actions around this include those listed below, all of which will assist in strengthening the Service’s workforce resilience both nationally and divisionally.

Continuing to embed NHS Scotland values as part of ongoing organisational development;

Developing frontline leadership and management capacity and capability across the service;

Developing talent management and effective succession planning;

Ensuring the service has the right mix of skills and resources to effectively contribute in an integrated health and social care system and robust staff governance and Partnership arrangements.

The Scottish Government works in partnership with the Scottish Ambulance Service and has recently agreed its Local Delivery Plan for 2015-16 which sets out how services be delivered in that year including working with NHS boards against the strategic priorities identified in Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce Vision.

This administration has provided the Scottish Ambulance Service with the highest level of resource funding the service has ever had with a resource budget of £212.1 million and £10.1 million capital funding in 2015-16. Scottish Ambulance staffing is up nearly 10 per cent under this administration.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is implementing a comprehensive action plan in Shetland and Orkney to ensure the islands are resourced and managed efficiently and effectively. Measures include upskilling staff and working in partnership with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in developing a shared facility in Lerwick, and with the health boards in regular liaison meetings to ensure any issues are quickly mitigated.

A second vehicle was introduced onto Shetland in 2010 where the service introduced their ‘retained ambulance staff’ scheme. Retained staff help paramedic staff be best utilised and assist the service during on-call periods.

Shetland received an additional member of staff in 2013 taking the substantive complement up to seven, plus two relief members of staff.

The service is working with partners developing an integrated approach to health and social care whilst jointly monitoring patient demand to mitigate against the recruitment and retention challenges experienced in North Division.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-24212 on 11 February 2015. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government did not appoint any advisors to negotiate or advise on the terms of the leasing contract between Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) and Lloyds Banking Group as it was CMAL’s responsibility to obtain appropriate advice.

A breakdown of the operational costs for the MV Loch Seaforth is a commercially confidential matter for CalMac Ferries Ltd.

The information requested is detailed in the following two tables.

Table 1 November 2013 – April 2014

Table 2 November 2014 – 19 March 2015

Please note that the statistics for Uig-Tarbert-Lochmaddy service are collated for the combined Uig-Tarbert-Lochmaddy services.