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This specific information is not held centrally.

Integration Authorities are responsible for strategic planning of adult social care services. Since April, Integration Authorities also have new responsibilities under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 for local carer strategies setting out carer support available locally, including short breaks, and an assessment of demand. They are also responsible for publishing short breaks services statements providing information about short breaks available for both carers and those they care for.

Data from the Respite Care Survey 2014-15 ( http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/6824 ) shows that:

• 31% of respite weeks were for overnight care such as in a care home; 65% was daytime respite care and 4% was provided as a direct payment.
• Older people aged 65+ were more likely to use overnight respite. 36% of older people using respite services had overnight respite care compared to 23% of those aged 18-64 and 31% of children.
• 89% of overnight respite nights took place in a care home setting, 4% at the person’s own home and 7% in another setting.

The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 took effect on 1 April 2018. Adult carers now have the right to an adult carer support plan to identify their personal outcomes so that their eligible needs are supported. Local authorities must consider whether support to a carer should take the form of, or include, a break from caring.

Integration Authorities also have new responsibilities under the Act to:

• establish and maintain an information and advice service for carers; and
• publish short breaks services statements providing information about short breaks available for both carers and those they care for.

The Scottish Government is supporting local delivery of these duties by:

• Publishing statutory guidance to accompany the Act which covers the provision of short breaks and provides examples of what a short break may consist of;
• Publishing a Carers’ charter which provides clear, accessible information on carers rights under the Act;
• Funding of the Coalition of Carers in Scotland (COCIS) to produce a leaflet on short breaks under the Act for use by local authorities;
• Funding Shared Care Scotland to maintain an online short breaks directory that local authorities can access;
• Supporting the development of a short breaks services statement template by a group of local authority representatives and Shared Care Scotland.

The Scottish Government has also provided over £23 million between 2010-11-2017-18 for the voluntary-sector Short Breaks Fund, administered by Shared Care Scotland and the Family Fund. We have committed a further £3 million for 2018-19.

The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 took effect on 1 April 2018. Provisions include the right to an adult carer support plan to identify each adult carer’s personal outcomes so that their eligible needs are supported. Local authorities must consider whether support to a carer should take the form of, or include, a break from caring.

The Scottish Government supports local authorities with their duty to offer eligible adult carers a short break as part of the implementation of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 by:

• including an additional £66 million in the 2018-19 budget to support additional expenditure by local government on social care, including for implementation of the Carers Act;
• Publishing statutory guidance to accompany the Act which covers the provision of short breaks and provides examples of what a short break may consist of;
• Funding of the Coalition of Carers in Scotland (COCIS) to produce a leaflet on short breaks under the Act for use by local authorities;
• Funding Shared Care Scotland to maintain an online short breaks directory that local authorities can access;
• Supporting the development of a short breaks services statement template by a group of local authority representatives and Shared Care Scotland.

The Scottish Government provided funding to NHS Lothian in 2017 to support the addition of a VOICES survey component into an evaluation of several other methods of capturing bereaved carer feedback. This work is being taken forward by NHS Lothian and is supported by the City of Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, and by Marie Curie.

Extensive preparatory work is required to conduct this study and this is underway. Navigating this process and identifying potential barriers and solutions to the effective administration of such surveys will be one of the key lessons from this project.

The Scottish Government looks forward to receiving the findings of the study in due course.

The Scottish Trauma Network (STN) aims to better meet the needs of the population of Scotland. The STN has been established to support four regional networks (North, East, South East and West), the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Trauma Audit to working collaboratively across traditional specialty and geographical boundaries to effectively deliver high quality, integrated care to severely injured patients. The STN has made assessment of trauma-informed emergency services, from pre-hospital through acute and into rehabilitation provision. This new approach will save more lives and improve patient outcomes.

Information on consultant numbers, of which consultants working in surgical specialities is a sub category, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following web links:

Data from 1997-2007 can be found here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Historic-Data/WFB03_B04_HB_REG.xls

Data from 2007-Dec 17 can be found here: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-03-06/Medical_Trend_D2017.xls

The number of health visitors employed by NHSScotland is published quarterly by Board.

• Data from 2015 to the most recent data, published on 5 December 2017, can be found at https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-03-06/Health_Visitors_D2017.xls .

Further notes:

• Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the 'FAQs' section of the Workforce Statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce/

Numbers of Consultants working in Surgical Specialities have increased by 41.7% during the lifetime of this government.

Information on consultant vacancy figures, of which consultants working in surgical specialities is a sub category, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following web links:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-03-06/Consultant_Vacancies_D2017.xls .

and

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2012-11-27/Consultant_Vacancies_S2012.xls?40942485 .

Information on how many NHS surgeon positions remained unfilled in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS Board, is not centrally held. Specific local information may be available from individual NHSScotland Boards.

The requested information is not held centrally. NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division collect and publish sickness absence data at a national and board level once a year. Annual information from 2007 is available at the following link:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-06-06/Sickness_Absence_M2017.xls .

The information requested is not held centrally. This information may be available from NHS Boards.

We are continuing to develop the Health Visiting Services to deliver a consistent enhanced service to all families and grow the workforce to meet additional demands. The Universal Health Visitor Pathway, published in October 2015, outlines a core home visiting programme as a minimum standard to be offered to all families with children under 5 years of age. The pathway is being implemented by NHS Boards on an incremental basis as new health visitors are recruited, and it is expected that full implementation will be achieved by 2020.