The Scottish Government is continuing to provide a range of recruitment support, training and development activity to assist Health Boards in securing an appropriate mix of experienced and newly qualified staff for their National Treatment Centres (NTCs). As at 30 September 2023, close to 600 people were employed in an NTC, of which around 32% were undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland.

We keep under active review the total number of staff that we will ultimately need to recruit to our National Treatment Centres and to support the overall ambition to increase planned care activity and reduce waiting times, as set out in the NHS Recovery Plan.

The Draft Scottish Budget 2024-25 was published on 19 Dec 2023.

The Bill is currently at ‘Stage 2 – Changes to Detail’ with any amendments to be considered at a meeting on 20 February 2024.

Once moved to ‘Stage 3 – Final amendments and vote’ a further vote will confirm that the Bill will become an Act before April 2024.

Reports that NHS Ayrshire and Arran will remove ICU beds from University Hospital Ayr and relocate them to Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock, citing significant workforce gaps was not raised during either the biannual performance review in September 2023 or the Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS) at NHS Education for Scotland (NES) medical insights meeting in October 2023.

The National Treatment Centres (NTCs) Programme is the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in NHS Scotland. Five new National Treatment Centres (NTCs) will be opened by 2024 at Golden Jubilee (Phase 1 and 2), NTC Fife, NTC Highland and NTC Forth Valley. Combined these centres will have eight orthopaedic theatres; an inpatient/day-case ward; three endoscopy rooms and two general theatres.

As a result of the almost 10% cut in our capital budget from the UK Government, we are having to revise our pipeline of infrastructure investment and we do not expect National Treatment Centres in Ayrshire and Arran, Grampian, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside to be progressed in the short to medium term. The figure of 40,000 additional activities from the 2021 recovery plan is dependent on all National Treatment Centres in development being operational, therefore we expect the additional annual activity from the programme to be 20,000 from 2024-25.

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.

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.

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.

The Scottish Government is unaware of any such claims.

I meet with a representative of ALACHO on a quarterly basis at Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group (HPSG) and at Housing to 2040 Strategic Board meetings. The dates of these meetings can be found here: Homelessness Prevention and Strategy Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and Housing to 2040: Strategic Board - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . I also met with an ALACHO representative on 20 December to discuss the draft Scottish Budget 2024-25 and with representatives of ALACHO and the Chartered Institute for Housing on 14 December to discuss their letter to me on pressures on the housing and homelessness system.

Following the deep dives agreed by HPSG, four task and finish groups were established from June 2022 onwards, which met regularly (between every four to eight weeks). Scottish Government officials were represented on these groups, one of which (the Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group) was co-chaired by a representative of ALACHO.

A representative of ALACHO chairs the rapid rehousing transition plan (RRTP) sub-group, attended by Scottish Government officials and, since 2021, has met with the Scottish Government on other strategic homelessness related issues, such as the Domestic Abuse Implementation and Monitoring Group, the Sustainable Housing on Release for Everyone Group and the Short Term Housing Supply Group. Finally, Scottish Government officials have met with ALACHO regularly in 2023 (every two to three months) to hold discussions on topics including local connection, RRTP funding, the proposed new homelessness prevention duties and the homelessness statistical data review.

The Member may wish to note that the reason for the low temperatures on the early services in the West Highland line is not a faulty heating system, but the time it takes for the train diesel engines to heat up. It would not be appropriate to replace the heating system which is not faulty.

In the longer term, ScotRail’s diesel rolling stock will be replaced by the greener trains as set out in the Scottish Government’s Decarbonisation Action Plan.