Seòmar agus comataidhean

The breakdown of the 356.1 whole time equivalent posts recruited within GP practices by NHS Health Board is as follows;

The Scottish Government is committed to working with partners to increase the number of social workers in the profession, as well as developing rewarding career pathways and improving terms and conditions.

The development of a Graduate Apprenticeship in Social Work is currently being considered for investment along with other routes into the profession. Discussions are underway with Skills Development Scotland on requirements to proceed with a pilot scheme.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. Nine of these pilots will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.

We do not record data on these projects at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The 9 pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

We acknowledge the immense, highly skilled and unique contribution made by social workers to support individuals and families across Scotland. The Scottish Government is committed to establishing a National Social Work Agency (NSWA), as part of the National Care Service, that will support and invest in the social work profession. However we are not waiting for the NSWA to be established to start this work.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing an advanced practice framework that meets the professional development needs of social workers in Scotland. The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders across the sector to develop a framework which sets out the structures that will support social workers to progress through different career phases.

A sub-group to develop the advanced practice framework has been established and a draft framework for engagement/co-design activity with frontline social workers is due from February 2023. It is important that this work is done with the workforce and not to the workforce. We are committed to getting this right for social workers across the country.

The deposit will be fully returnable and retailers will be required to display information clearly about returns. Under the Deposit Return Scheme it is expected that most people will use returned deposits to cover future deposits on drinks containers.

Further work is currently underway to ensure that the interactions between Minimum Unit Price and the Deposit Return Scheme continue to be understood as the scheme evolves and kept under review, including once DRS launches on 16 August this year.

The Scottish Government remains committed to a mandatory supported first year in practice for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs). This is part of the ambition to create a strategic framework from qualifying education through to advanced practice for all social workers and social work employers in Scotland.

The Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor (OCSWA), the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and Social Work Education Partnership (SWEP) are working together to develop the infrastructure required to support this ambition. The indicative timeline to begin national implementation of the NQSW Supported Year is September 2024 to align with required regulatory change, regional developments and the advanced practice workstreams.

We do not have the information requested as we are still in the testing and policy development phase of the free bikes programme. In this government’s first 100 days, we established six pilot schemes with a further four running by the end of 2021. The pilot programme will run until the end of March 2023, testing different approaches and delivery models, including eligibility, to help inform a national rollout.

We do not record data on bike numbers at local authority level. However, considering bikes issued and associated training and promotion sessions, free bikes activities have taken place in 20 of 32 local authority areas. The pilots are running across a range of locations including in urban, rural and island communities.

The current Health and Social Care Standards were implemented on 1 April 2018 and are published on the Scottish Government website.

The Care Inspectorate is the independent scrutiny body and regulator for care services in Scotland. Since April 2018, the Health and Social Care standards have underpinned inspections and quality assurance functions carried out by the Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and other scrutiny bodies.

Two new standards were published in March 2022 and have a strong emphasis on helping care home residents and their families stay connected. We have provided additional support and resource to the Care Inspectorate (£276,000 over the next two years) to enhance their role in supporting visiting rights through the ‘Anne's Law and Connection for People in Care Homes project’. This additional resource will enable the Care Inspectorate to proactively champion the implementation of the new standards and rigorously monitor its progress.

The Scottish Government has worked closely with the Care Inspectorate and other public bodies as they have raised awareness and understanding of the Standards. “Real stories” videos and animations raising the profile of the standards are available through the Care Inspectorate’s YouTube channel. A one-day Holyrood event took place to help organisations understand how they can be used in delivering quality care and the Standards were promoted at a number of conferences and events, including targeted events for NHS staff. A dedicated website and a Scottish Government Twitter page were created and used to promote the launch of the Standards, and a bespoke booklet for unpaid carers was launched in partnership with the Carers Trust.

Due to an absence of Scottish Government landholdings (i.e. presence of Scotland’s national forests and land) in East Lothian and/or Midlothian, Forestry and Land Scotland have not conducted any tree planting (either restocking or new planting) in the two local authority areas in the period of 2007 to 2022.

The local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and they will allocate resources on the basis of local priorities. The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

In the most challenging budget settlement since devolution, we are providing over £13.2 billion in the Local Government Settlement 2023-24.

The local authority may also wish to contact the Coal Authority to establish if there is any recourse to them regarding the historical mine works.