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The requested statistics are collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS).Published statistics on the length of time patients wait for a first outpatient appointment at Allied Health Professional (AHP) led Musculoskeletal (MSK) services are available at: https://publichealthscotland.scot

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with musculoskeletal conditions can access the best possible care and support.

We expect health care professionals and NHS Boards to deliver high quality person-centred care to those living with musculoskeletal conditions in line with best practice guidance. The NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website and can be found at: Musculoskeletal conditions | Guidance and guideline topic | NICE . The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website at: www.sign.ac.uk and at following search link: Search Results.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to manage a Rheumatology Specialty Delivery Group, which includes nominated multi-disciplinary representation from all Health Boards providing Rheumatology services.

Scottish Government officials and the CfSD national planned care team meet monthly with the Chief Operating Officer and Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including rheumatology. Meetings with the island health boards are generally on a bimonthly basis.

In April 2023, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) announced an Independent Medicines Homecare Review in response to reports of failings in the standards of care provided across Scotland and the increasing demand for medicines homecare provision.

The CPO will be publishing the Homecare Medicines Review before the end of March. In terms of next steps, the CPO has met with NHS National Procurement to discuss what actions can be taken forward within their remit and what actions require further consideration through a task and finish group. The group will be established shortly and will be chaired by a Director of Pharmacy and a Director of Nursing. The Group will help to outline the next steps and timescales around this.

Physical Activity referral schemes are operated by Health Boards according to local need. The information requested on waiting lists is not held centrally.

These issues are not caused by Social Security Scotland systems. They are being caused by the way DWP systems are sharing information about Carer’s Allowance and Carer Support Payment awards, which is impacting a small number of carers’ wider support including Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Universal Credit. We are engaging with DWP who are continuing to investigate. DWP have issued advice to Local Authorities and Universal Credit staff setting out how to access the correct data to administer their benefits. Any carers who are experiencing problems or have any concerns with their Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction should contact their local authority, or contact DWP for any concerns with their Universal Credit, who can investigate their award and correct any issues.

Social Security Scotland recognises that clients have complex and varied accessibility needs for communicating with us. Clients have told us that they require a choice in how we communicate with them. For example, some clients may prefer to engage with us through paper-based communications and some clients may prefer digital communications to allow them to use assistive technology.

All of our applications can be made online, on paper, over the phone or face to face with our Local Services team. Clients can contact us to discuss their circumstances and payments by phone, face to face or via webchat. Communications are sent to clients by letter, email and SMS.

Plans are in place to expand the use of email and SMS as a communication channel as initial testing in this area has proven that this is something that clients want and need. The approach to how clients' communication preferences are captured is being carefully considered to ensure that digital communications are available to those clients who would benefit from this without excluding those for whom digital communications are not accessible.

There are fourteen Allied Health Professions (AHP) across Scotland and Paramedicine is the only AHP that has a controlled intake target. There are currently no plans to extend this to any other professions within the AHP family, including Speech and Language Therapy.

The Scottish Government funded Scottish Education Exchange Programme test and learn project enables Scottish colleges and universities to re-establish some of the opportunities Erasmus+ provided, which the UK Government Turing Scheme does not. In particular, to encourage the development of partnerships between institutions that could enable staff and inward exchanges.

The test and learn project has been developed with stakeholders from across the sector. Feedback from institutions to the working group has been positive and we have committed to working collaboratively on the project moving forward.

The project focuses on closing the shortfall between the UK Government Turing Scheme and Erasmus+. In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of sustainable partnerships.

Projects in year 2 of the test and learn are providing opportunities for disadvantaged students from Scotland, who are excluded from the UK Government Turing Scheme, to undertake an exchange.

These projects are live. Details of the number of students who participated will be shared after the projects conclude in March 2025.

Additional information on the Scottish Education Exchange Programme projects can be found on the Scottish Government website. Link

The Scottish Government funds the School Library Improvement Fund which has provided £1.85m of funding to support improvement in library provision across Scotland since 2017.

The Scottish Government is working with partners and stakeholders to reconvene the School Libraries Education and Policy Working Group to build on the success of the National School Library Strategy – Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools at a national level.

Trainee educational psychologists enrol as students and do not have an employment contract. Students are allocated a placement in Local Authorities to gain experience and to gather evidence so that they can complete their coursework. The grant for educational psychologist trainees, in addition to tuition fee funding, is not income assessed and is provided to help towards living costs associated with studying.

In Scotland trainee clinical psychologists are recruited through a UK clearing house system to NHS employment on nationally evaluated NHS Agenda for Change band 6 job roles in common with their peers across the UK. NHS Education for Scotland provides funding for salaries to NHS Scotland Boards via service level agreements and funding for fees to university programme providers. The training is a three year postgraduate doctoral programme and Clinical Psychology trainees provide clinical services during training as part of supervised and assessed practice, including contributing to the NHS Scotland Psychological Therapies waiting time standards.

In partnership, the Scottish Government and COSLA provide £2m investment per year to deliver the training programme for educational psychologists.