Seòmar agus comataidhean

Public Health Scotland (PHS) have identified a total of 22,779 COVID-19 vaccinations given to 16,229 pregnant women in Scotland from the start of the COVID-19 vaccination programme on 8 December 2020 to 30 September 2021. Among 3,992 women delivering their baby in Sep 2021, the most recent month for which data is currently available, 1,342 (33.6%) had received any COVID-19 vaccination prior to delivery, and 946 (23.7%) had received two doses of vaccination.

The percentage of pregnant women in Scotland who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (received their second vaccine dose), alongside other relevant statistics from 8 December 2020 to 30 September 2021 can be found here: COVID-19 Statistical Report (publichealthscotland.scot) .

Please note, only first and second primary doses of vaccination have been included in these figures – not third primary doses or booster doses administered.

Information regarding pregnant women currently in intensive care unit as a result of contracting COVID-19 or have been hospitalised and delivered their baby early is not held centrally by the Scottish Government and not yet publicly available. Public Health Scotland may be contacted and may be able to provide this information.

See S6W-04225 on 17 November 2021 for information regarding pregnant women admitted to intensive care during the period March 2020 to September 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 .

It is the responsibility of Health Boards to ensure they provide patients with a service for the return and disposal of medicines. Patients should return any unused medicines to a community pharmacy or dispensing doctor to ensure they can be safely and appropriately destroyed. This, coupled with only ordering what a patient requires and letting the pharmacist/prescriber know when a patient has chosen to stop taking a medicine, helps to reduce the overall amount that will need disposal.

No data is collected on the return or disposal of medicines due to the difficult nature of quantifying and recording this information. Health Boards are responsible for ensuring unused medicines are safely disposed of, though are not required to record this data.

The Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy, published in October 2021, committed to establishing a Green Heat Finance Taskforce by the end of 2021. The Taskforce will forge a new partnership approach between the Scottish public sector, heat decarbonisation experts and the financial sector to explore potential new and value for money innovative financing mechanisms for investment in zero emissions heat. The Taskforce has a crucial role in shaping how the transition to zero emissions heat in Scotland’s buildings is financed, therefore the membership of the Taskforce will be drawn from expertise including green finance, the heat and energy efficiency sector and consumer groups.

The online self-booking portal for COVID-19 booster vaccinations will open on 15 November 2021.

The online self-booking portal will be open to adults aged 50-59, unpaid carers who are aged 16 or over, and people aged 16 or over who are household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. This will allow people in those groups to book online for appointments from early December onwards.

As part of Programme for Government (PfG) commitments made in 2019 and reaffirmed in 2020 we are developing a programme to improve stroke pathways and services.

A progressive stroke pathway document, due by the end of this year, will clearly set out our vision of what we should expect of a progressive stroke service in Scotland in order that services fully meet the needs of people who experience a stroke. This will include consideration of the important role of stroke units.

The Scottish Stroke Care Audit monitors the quality of care provided by the hospitals in all NHS Boards. Access to a stroke unit is a standard measured by SSCA, alongside other standards associated with improved patient outcomes. Performance against the standards, and more detail on service models can be found here: Scottish stroke improvement programme 2021 national report - Scottish stroke improvement programme - Publications - Public Health Scotland .

CS Wind had previously received grant support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to open their facility in Macrihanish. Providing further public sector support may have breached subsidy control limits

Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.

The Scottish Government's STEM Education and Training Strategy has set out a range of actions designed to support STEM teaching and learning in Scotland’s secondary schools.

Measures include supporting the STEM enhanced professional learning grants programme operated by Education Scotland. Round 3, operating in financial year 2021-22, will provide professional learning to an estimated 13,400 practitioners in 759 establishments, with funding to the secondary sector benefitting 4,280 practitioners in 233 establishments.

Education Scotland issues annual STEM practitioner surveys to gather evidence about practitioner priorities and provision to ensure grant funding, as well as regional and national support, provides high-quality professional learning that meets the needs of practitioners.

Education Scotland’s regional improvement teams work closely at local authority, regional and national levels to support STEM professional learning and teacher networks to help them improve practice. The Improving Gender Balance and Equalities Team also work within the regions to improve STEM teaching approaches to ensure all learners benefit, irrespective of gender or protected characteristic.

Through the pandemic Education Scotland has worked with partners to collate and develop over 9,000 STEM resources to support remote learning. These are now available nationally to teachers, learners and parents through the National e-Learning Offer website.

Scottish Government is supporting an education bursary initiative designed to offer up to 150 STEM bursaries to encourage more people to train as secondary school teachers in STEM subjects. We are also supporting the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) to provide teacher professional learning opportunities for secondary science, technology and digital skills development. Courses are open to student teachers, probationers, classroom teachers as well as school leaders.

We continue to invest in work to develop the capacity of teachers and school leaders to deliver inspiring STEM courses; including a Young STEM Leader awards programme that aims to inspire and reward young people to take up STEM subjects and encourage their peers to do so.