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Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) aims to publish the final report of its study into standardised counting methods for mountain hare populations before the end of 2017. The study has compared a number of methods and it is anticipated that the report will make recommendations on the most appropriate of these, which SNH will then discuss with key stakeholders with a view to establishing a consistent method of assessing mountain hare population health and the impact of any future management activity.

The Scottish Government is required to report to the European Commission (via the UK Government) under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive on a 6-year basis. The first assessment of the conservation status of mountain hares covered the period 2001–2006 and was submitted in 2007. The second such assessment covered the period 2007–2012 and was submitted in 2013.

Each assessment considered four parameters: range, population, habitat and future prospects. Each parameter was assessed as being in one of the following conditions: favourable; unfavourable-inadequate; unfavourable-bad; or unknown. An overall species assessment of ‘favourable’ requires all four parameters to be assessed as favourable.

In the 2007 Article 17 report, the overall assessment of mountain hares was ‘unfavourable-inadequate’, based on habitat information, with the other parameters being assessed as favourable. In the 2013 Article 17 report, all four parameters were assessed as ‘favourable’.

Draft guidance has been produced by the Moorland Forum’s Guidance Group and is currently being considered by its Principles of Moorland Management (POMM) Steering Group. The POMM Steering Group is expected to publish the guidance when Moorland Forum members have agreed the final form of the guidance.

We recognise the importance of ongoing education and professional development to ensure staff continue to have the right knowledge and skills over the course of their career and expect employers to ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to support this.

The current nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools make allowance for staff’s ongoing learning and continuing professional development as part of overall planning assumptions.

We will continue to discuss with stakeholders the details of the forthcoming safe staffing legislation.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2017-18 includes a commitment to introduce a Safe Staffing Bill to enshrine NHS staffing in law, starting with nursing and midwifery.

The safe staffing legislation will require health boards to adopt a nationally agreed approach to planning staffing levels, ensuring decisions take account of patients’ needs, local context, professional judgement and measures of quality of care. It will also require boards to monitor and report on how they have done this and provide assurance regarding safe and effective staffing. It will apply initially to nursing and midwifery.

The nursing and midwifery workload tools are applied in each clinical area or ward and identify the numbers needed to deliver care to the users of the service taking account of acuity and dependency.

This is part of a package of measures being taken to support and strengthen workforce planning and workforce supply across the health and social care workforce.

We will continue to discuss with stakeholders the details of the forthcoming safe staffing legislation.

The safe staffing legislation will require NHS Boards to demonstrate that they have applied evidence based workload and workforce planning tools and taken account of professional judgement, local context and quality measures in making decisions on staffing levels. They will also be required to ensure staff are engaged in the process and understand how staffing decisions have been arrived at. It is anticipated that taking this robust approach to workforce planning will help ensure that the right numbers of staff are in place and that this will enable a further reduction in reliance on use of agency and bank staff.

Agency staff use in NHSScotland represented just 0.4% of the nursing workforce in 2015-16.

NHS Boards have already implemented new governance arrangements and local procedures, ensuring that when temporary staff are required that agency is the very last resort.

We will continue to discuss with stakeholders the details of the forthcoming safe staffing legislation.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2017-18 made a commitment to introduce a Safe Staffing Bill to enshrine NHS staffing in law, starting with nursing and midwifery.

The application of the nursing and midwifery workload and workforce methodology ensure that staffing decisions take account of patient’s needs, local context, professional judgement and quality measures. Robust and consistent application of the process can inform commissioning of services and identification of future workforce requirements, and in turn should inform robust NHS board workforce projections. We will continue to discuss with stakeholders the details of the forthcoming safe staffing legislation.

The use of evidence based methods and tools is one important part of overall workforce planning arrangements at local and national level.

Scottish Government works with key stakeholders to plan and agree the student intake numbers each year as part of wider workforce planning to ensure we get the right number of trained staff for the future. Pre-registration training numbers are estimated on the basis of the number of newly qualified nurses and midwives required in five years’ time and take account of a wider range of available information, including NHS board workforce projections.

Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan, published 28 June 2017 sets out plans to strengthen and harmonise workforce planning arrangements, and includes a commitment to continue to strengthen student intake planning. We will consider how to maximise the contribution of the nursing and midwifery workload and workforce planning tools as part of this wider work.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2017-18 commits to introduce a Safe Staffing Bill to enshrine NHS staffing in law, starting with nursing and midwifery.

A public consultation on proposals to place the nursing and midwifery workload and workforce tools on a statutory footing and to consider extending this approach to other health care settings ran for 12 weeks between 12 April – 5 July 2017.

The consultation responses are currently being independently analysed and they will help shape the development of the legislation.

The safe staffing legislation is part of a package of measures being taken to support and strengthen workforce planning and workforce supply across the health and social care workforce.

In the last 5 years, Ministers have received 4 applications for dispensation from regulations 7 and 8 of the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967, all of which were approved after careful consideration.

The detailed set up and facilities within the Social Security Agency’s offices have yet to be determined. We are at an early stage of understanding requirements and then specifying the layout of our buildings. There are a number of work streams associated with the requirement gathering not least through our consultation events and experience panels where we are committed to listening to those who use the current services, understanding the barriers which exist and supporting people as best we can.

The Agency Operations Reference Group has also been established and brings together practitioners, with operational experience in delivering effective public services, to help shape the agency. The aim of the Group is to learn from their experiences, make connections to identify possible co-location opportunities and raise the profile of the agency and its role. Membership of the Group is from across public and third sector organisations.

To ensure that trade unions have a voice in the overall agency set up process we have established the Social Security Agency Partnership Working Forum. Membership of the Forum includes PCS Scotland, who are also representing Prospect and FDA at Partnership meetings, and feeds into the Strategic Forum, which was established to consider employment issues arising from the Smith Commission and Scotland Act conclusions.