Chamber and committees

We refute any such suggestion and remain committed to delivering efficient and sustainable ferry service for the Arran community.

The development of the Ardrossan project remains challenging for all partners. The tender design work identified gaps in the original base case submitted by Peel Ports Group and North Ayrshire Council.

The project scope is of vital importance to the business case and cost estimate review work. There is a clear need for a robust business case to support decisions by partners on this scale of project. The impact of recent announcements from Peel Ports Group around the condition and integrity of the existing port infrastructure is under review.

Officials meet regularly with NHS Forth Valley to ensure progress against their delivery plan. The board have a number of actions underway to support performance recovery including optimisation of their Flow Navigation Centre to ensure better links with primary and community care, increasing frailty capacity and focused work to embed their Discharge without Delay approach.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with NHS Boards including NHS Forth Valley to support delivery of the Urgent and Unscheduled Care collaborative, to ensure sustainable ways of delivering services, improving access for patients, and reducing unnecessary demand for services.

Decline in applications for teaching bursaries can be for many reasons, including a fall in the overall number of applications for the PGDE courses in bursary eligible subjects.

We are engaging with a range of stakeholders including local authority employers, university providers and the teaching unions to work collectively to raise the profile of teaching as a highly rewarding career.

As you will be aware, the scheme was extended in 2023 to include Gaelic as a secondary subject, and Gaelic medium across all secondary subjects and in primary.

The 2024-25 Scottish Budget will provide an uplift of over half a billion, bringing the budget for NHS Boards to over £14.2 billion, of which NES will receive £550.2 million. Health boards are responsible for ensuring best use of available resources to support delivery of services and strategic objectives.

NES plays a critical role in supporting the education, training and wider development of the NHS Scotland workforce, and in particular the medical workforce where target training numbers have already been confirmed for 2024-25. As part of this, the Board is actively contributing to a number of wider policy developments as set out in Programme for Government, the NHS Recovery Plan and the National workforce Strategy. The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering the National Workforce Strategy and achieving the overall vision for “A sustainable, skilled workforce with attractive career choices and fair work where all are respected and valued for the work they do”.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to increasing the number of GPs in Scotland. This includes ongoing work on the ambition of increasing GPs by 800, in headcount terms, by 2027 alongside looking at trends of Whole-Time Equivalent GP capacity in the service, which is also crucial. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, progress is being made with GP headcount having increased by 271 since 2017 and 5,168 GPs now working in Scotland.

Training new GPs is key to our approach, and this takes time. We have expanded GP Specialty Training, adding 35 places this academic year and a further 35 places next year. As a result, there are currently, just over 1200 trainee GPs in Scotland. Recruitment into General Practice continues to perform well, with 100% of posts filled as of July 2023, with end-year results to be published shortly.

To help retain more GPs within the workforce, in June 2023 the Scottish Government convened a working group made up of key stakeholders including the BMA, RCGP and the Rural General Practitioner Association of Scotland, to make recommendations to improve the retention of GPs in all regions of Scotland. An implementation plan based on these recommendations will be published in Spring this year.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government the member may wish to contact NHS Boards directly for information.

Public Health Scotland does not hold procedure level information only the speciality which in this case would be Urology.

PHS continues to work in collaboration with the Scottish Government, NHS Boards and key stakeholders to improve waiting times information. Statistics relating to the waits patients experience for Inpatient or Day Case treatment at specialty level are published up to 20 September 2023 in the link below.

Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 September 2023 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland

The Scottish Government has regular meetings on a wide range of issues related to General Practitioners (GPs) with the British Medical (BMA) Association and the Scottish Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP Scotland) as representative bodies of GPs.

In June 2023 the Scottish Government convened a working group of key stakeholders including the BMA, RCGP and the Rural General Practitioner Association of Scotland, to make recommendations to improve the retention of GPs in all regions of Scotland, including rural areas. An implementation plan based on these recommendations will be published in Spring this year.

The Scottish Government is also a standing member of the RCGP (Scotland) Recruitment and Retention Advisory Group which meets regularly. In addition, the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care launched in October 2023 and is designed to improve primary care and community services and support the improvement and retention of a more highly skilled rural health workforce.

This information is not collected centrally by Scottish Government, Health boards would have to be contacted to obtain the latest dates of surgeries carried out.

In school inspections, HM Inspectors evaluate and report on the quality of education being provided. HM Inspectors use quality indicators from 'How good is our school? (4th edition).' This framework focuses on evaluating the quality of education provision for learners which is a key responsibility of HM Inspectors. There are currently no plans for HM Chief Inspector to issue additional guidance in relation to staff health and wellbeing.

The health and wellbeing of staff is primarily the responsibility of the employer. For most schools in Scotland this means local authorities are responsible for ensuring arrangements are in place to support staff health and wellbeing.

In carrying out inspections, HM Inspectors are mindful that inspection can be an unfamiliar experience for school staff. HM Inspectors work together with the school to minimise disruption and unnecessary bureaucracy. HM Inspectors provide a headteacher's briefing note to schools being inspected to ensure they know what to expect, and what papers or examples of work the inspection team will want to see. They aim to carry out inspections in a way that seeks to minimise burden on staff and keep paperwork required to a minimum. Inspectors are happy to observe what teachers would be doing on an ordinary day without any special changes for an inspection.

HM Inspectors take care to ensure that they operate in line with best practice principles, known as the PRAISE framework. This framework outlines expectations regarding conduct and behaviour of HM Inspectors when engaging with staff in a school or setting.

The Scottish Government is unaware of any such claims.