- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the costs of specialist care for veterans who have suffered polytrauma will be funded through the National Services Division.
Answer
Scottish Government has established a working group to further progress our vision of developing a Scottish Veterans’ Treatment Pathway. The pathway will integrate physical, mental and wellbeing support and provide a route for treatment for veterans presenting with a service-related injury, which remains a cause for concern despite treatment, either previous or current.
The funding mechanism is still to be determined this may include a specialist services being commissioned by National Services Division through their standard process About specialist services | National Services Scotland (nhs.scot)
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it has introduced to tackle drugs misuse in the veterans community in Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government is investing £250 million in the National Drugs Mission over the life of the Parliament to save and improve lives of people who use drugs, including veterans. For the first time this year we will have data on the number of veterans accessing drug and alcohol treatment services, using the new Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy). We will use this data to inform our work to better meet the needs of veterans who use drugs to support them to achieve their recovery goals.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what support it gives to assist the work of Veterans Champions.
Answer
Scottish Government facilitates and provides secretariat to quarterly meetings with our NHS Armed Forces Personnel and Veterans Champions Network. These Network meetings enable Scottish Government, relevant stakeholders and Champions to exchange information, support one another in delivering work, share best practice and provide updates in relation to veterans health.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13496 by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023, how many (a) health and social care partnerships and (b) provider representative organisations it has worked with to deliver webinars for social care employers, and what plans it has to engage with any such remaining organisations.
Answer
Officials hosted webinars which took place week commencing 9 January to offer additional support to providers in applying PR and Marketing approaches at a local level, based on their specific need, and to share more insight into the alternative recruitment routes available, such as Apprenticeship and Employability programmes.
These events were optional and open to all providers across social care sector. Invitations were issued to providers through CCPS and Scottish Care.
We plan to review the feedback provided on these webinars to assess the interest for further webinars to be hosted, consider how these may be improved in the future and what additional topics participates would be keen for these to cover.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13495 by Kevin Stewart on 13 January 2023, how much it spent on the There’s More to Care Than Caring campaign, and how much it plans to spend on the 2023 campaign.
Answer
The total cost of the 2021-2022 campaign was £206,970. The 2023 campaign has been developed to have a much greater media presence and will aim to reach a broader audience than previous campaigns. With this, the projected spend for the 2023 campaign is £500,000. This also cost also includes activities on insights gathering to gain further clarity on how the campaign messaging is received and the public perceptions of a career in social care to help inform and shape future recruitment support.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government as stated as an action point in its National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland, whether it has reviewed the Antimicrobial Stewardship, Health Protection and Infection Prevention and Control Workforce, and, if it is the case, what the conclusions were of any such review.
Answer
The Scottish Government reviewed the Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS), Health Protection (HP) and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Workforce in 2022, as part of the work formulating evidence towards the recently published ‘Infection Prevention Workforce: Strategic Plan 2022-2024’. The plan is about building capacity and capability of AMS, HP (with relevance to IPC) and IPC workforce in all health and care settings, to enable recovery and development. It reflects on the need for planning post pandemic across all health and care, and as part of the wider system infection management needs. Following a situational analysis, recommendations in the plan include:
- identifying the current specialist workforce across health and care to assess and address demands (current and future) and potential service gaps, to allow for succession planning and sustainability.
- reviewing and addressing current IPC capability within the AMS and HP Workforce.
- reviewing current educational and career pathways and identify key priorities in order to meet future and evolving needs to support service delivery.
- progressing the work for a national surveillance eSystem for IPC within secondary care, with the support of local and national stakeholders.
- identifying the requirements for new/emerging local/national specialist roles, which will support phased implementation of a sustainable workforce.
- that each Board should consider whether services should be led by a clinical leader with a focus on AMR, HAI and IPC and with accountability to the executive team within a board, or partnership, to ensure safe and effective clinical service delivery.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken with NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to ensure that workforce plans are part of wider integrated plans, which include and triangulate with financial and service/operational planning arrangements.
Answer
The Scottish Government has engaged directly with representatives from NHS Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships to develop, deliver and subsequently assess workforce, finance and service plans in 2022-23. As part of the planning process, health boards were set workforce priorities in connection with their Annual Delivery Plan. Further, Scottish Government guidance on the production of three-year workforce plans, issued in April 2022, set out expressly how and where medium-term workforce planning should be directly aligned with financial and service planning priorities, taking into account assessments of changing service demand and relevant financial/budgetary forecasting.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 26 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what it has done to address the issue of homelessness experienced by veterans.
Answer
Scotland has some of the strongest homelessness legislation in the world and all local authorities have a legal duty to provide support to anyone at risk of homelessness, including veterans.
Preventing homelessness from happening in the first place is the best and most effective way to end homelessness. That is why, we commissioned the Veterans Scotland Housing Group to develop specific strategies to prevent homelessness for veterans. Their report was published in January 2022. We have accepted the 24 recommendations in principle and are engaging with partners on next steps.
Additionally, we continue to support the charity Housing Options Scotland to provide its Military Matters project, helping veterans and serving members of the Armed Forces to find the right home in the right place. The Scottish Government website also hosts a guide containing housing in Scotland information and contacts of organisations who may be able to help veterans obtain housing suitable for their needs.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 26 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to promote further recognition of skills and experience gained in military services to employers and the wider community.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13853 on 26 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 26 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what work it has undertaken to improve workforce equalities data obtained through national staff surveys to ensure that they capture the breadth and experience of people from all backgrounds.
Answer
Analysis of the responses to the 2020 Health and Social Care Staff Wellbeing Survey, by protected characteristics, was completed in 2021. The results did not show any significant differences in the wellbeing of staff from under-represented groups, compared to other groups of staff and compared to the general well-being of under-represented groups in the general population.
Demographic questions, including on ethnicity were included in the 2021 and 2022 iMatter Health and Social Care Staff Experience Continuous Improvement Model questionnaires for the first time.
The demographic analysis is scheduled to be available later this year. This will allow Health Boards to put action plans in place to deliver improvements, where needed, for under-represented groups.
The demographic questions replicate the 2022 Scottish Census questions, meaning that direct comparisons of the workforce to the population can be made.’