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The Scottish Government welcomes the Setting the Bar for Social Work report and will consider its findings for future policy decisions, including any potential developments of a public information campaign. Social workers make a highly skilled, unique and valuable contribution to supporting individuals and families across Scotland. We acknowledge the significant pressures social workers face around increasing workloads, staff shortages and the more complex needs of those they support – all of which have been exacerbated by COVID.

The Scottish Social Services Awards have been held annually since 2017 (except in 2020 due to COVID-19) and provide an opportunity to recognise the social work and social care workforce, raise the profile of the sector, demonstrate that it is valued and highlight the commitment and innovative approaches of those who work within it.

Further, the recently published National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will establish a new National Social Work Agency, which will support and invest in the social work profession by providing national leadership, and overseeing and supporting social work in a range of areas, including: workforce planning, improvement and social work terms and conditions.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with COSLA and stakeholders to look at how social workers can be supported while they undertake their vital work across our communities.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Setting the Bar for Social Work in Scotland report and will consider and discuss the findings with its partners to inform and develop future social work workforce policy. Social workers make a highly skilled, unique and valuable contribution to supporting individuals and families across Scotland. We acknowledge the significant pressures social workers face around increasing workloads, staff shortages and the more complex needs of those they support – all exacerbated by COVID.

Social workers are primarily employed by local authorities and it is the responsibility of local authorities to plan their workforce and ensure they have appropriate levels of staff in place to provide social services for their residents.

The Scottish Government’s investment of £25m, announced as part of the 2022-23 Budget, was additional funding to relieve pressure on the adult social care sector to ensure care can be delivered safely to those who need it. £22m of funding was distributed based on grant aided expenditure for adult social work for 2022-23, as agreed by COSLA Leaders, and will be used to employ additional social workers or associated social work assistants or support staff – with the clear purpose of adding to the capacity of the social work workforce to respond to the current pressures.

The recently published National Care Service (Scotland) Bill will establish a new National Social Work Agency, which will support and invest in the social work profession by providing national leadership, and overseeing and supporting social work in a range of areas, including workforce planning.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the newborn hearing test and newborn infant physical examination. These would need to be requested from health boards directly.

Further to the answer to question S6W-02448 which provided information on the number of babies screened using the bloodspot test in the newborn screening programme for each month between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 . The following table provides information on the number of babies screened using the bloodspot test in the newborn screening programme, for each month in the period that followed from August 2021 to June 2022:

Further to the answer to question S6W-02449 which provided information on the number of people who attended an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening appointment between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of people who attended an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening in each of the months that followed from August 2021 to June 2022.

The Scottish Government does not hold national data for infectious diseases screening, antenatal haemoglobinopathies screening, or foetal anomaly ultrasound examinations within the pregnancy screening programme. These can be requested directly from individual NHS boards.

Further to the answer to question S6W-02453 which provided information on the number of trisomy screens taken between January 2019 and June 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of trisomy screens taken each month in the period which followed from July 2021 to June 2022:

Further to the answer to question S6W-02451 which provided information on the number of samples collected within the cervical screening programme from January 2019 to August 2021. 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 The following table provides information for each of the months that followed from September 2021 to June 2022.

Further to the answer to question S6W-02452 which provided information on the number of people screened for diabetic retinopathy in each month between January 2019 and July 2021. 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 The following table provides information on the number of people screened for diabetic retinopathy, in each month of the period that followed, from August 2021 to June 2022:

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Official statistical reports relating to the Scottish Ambulance Service can be found on the following link. Public Health Scotland .

We remain committed to increasing the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including launching our GP recruitment marketing campaign last month, increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.

By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019-20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.

Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017

The total number of deaths by suicide recorded by National Records of Scotland (NRS) from 2007 to 2020 are detailed in the following table. Finalised statistics for deaths by suicide in 2021 are not yet available. NRS plan to publish these on 2 August 2022.