Chamber and committees

Growing our nursing workforce is crucial and we have steadily increased places on undergraduate nursing courses over 9 consecutive years. Each year we undertake a robust nursing student intakes planning process to determine the target number of nursing students to which Scottish universities should recruit to meet future nursing workforce demands. The process involves significant input from key stakeholders from across the health and education sectors, and uses detailed modelling of current and projected staff and student numbers, including workforce supply and demand for 3-5 years hence, as well as anticipated key service drivers, in coming to a decision.

To address more immediate staffing pressures, the NHS Recovery Plan, which was published on 25 August 2021, commits more than £1 billion of targeted investment for the recovery and renewal of our health service. A key requirement to delivering the Recovery Plan is having the right workforce in place at the right time and it is therefore key that we now develop a new supporting workforce strategy to enable us to do this. We will therefore publish a National Workforce Strategy by the end of this year, which supports remobilisation, recovery and renewal of Health and Social Care Services.

The Scottish Government package of support for Scottish student nurses and midwives is currently at its highest level. The average cost of training a nursing student, over three years of full-time university education, is £55,000. This comprises:

• Teaching grant and tuition fee payments to the university;
• £10,000 non-means tested, non-repayable annual bursary payments to the student;
• travel costs;
• uniform costs;
• health checks;
• disclosure checks;
• and a range of additional funding students can also apply for, such as Dependant’s Allowance, Single Parent’s Allowance, Childcare Allowance for Parents and Disabled Students’ Allowance.

Through the LEZ support fund, eligible households disposing of a non-LEZ compliant car can claim a cash grant, plus up to £500 per adult in ‘Travel Better’ vouchers towards the cost of a range of travel options such as rail pass, bus pass, bike, car hire, or bike hire.

As eBikes are more expensive than the £500 ‘Travel Better’ grant, applicants can use the 'Travel Better' grant to part-fund the cost of an eBike and pay the additional costs themselves.

We have received 63 applications for part-funding purchases of eBikes and 63 grants have been approved as of 21 October 2021. A further 3 ‘Travel better’ grants have been also been given towards the cost of recycled/repurposed eBikes.

Applications for part-funding of eBikes represent 17% of all ‘travel better’ grants approved.

The Framework represents a range of skills required for major transformation programme support including programme management and governance setup as opposed to social care delivery experience. The Framework was established specifically in recognition of the need for such services on an occasional basis and is available for use by all UK public bodies. It sought to address the understandable lack of such specialist internal resources due to the temporary nature of such a requirement. Calling off from the Framework provides access to a range of skill sets, and levels and areas of specialism drawn from a team of resources as opposed to reliance on single individuals.

Plans to create and provide training courses to support the heat in buildings strategy:

Working with industry, we have developed a set of installer skills requirements to help professionalise services in the sector, and provide clearer career pathways for young people. We consulted on these earlier this year and we are now integrating these requirements into the relevant industry standards.

We anticipate that the heat in buildings transition will require a substantial growth in supply chains, particularly in the availability of skilled heating and energy efficiency installers. However, the specific scale and timing of the required workforce growth will depend on a range of factors including the changing demographics and supply chain demand across the construction sector.

We have partnered with Scottish Renewables and Skills Development Scotland to undertake a ‘Heat in Buildings Workforce Assessment Project’ which will help us define the timing of workforce growth and how best to support people transitioning into key roles. This work will report back in Spring 2022. This will improve our understanding on how best to support workforce investment and ensure that jobs will be available for people to move into as they complete their training.

Ensuring that colleges and schools have sufficient trained professionals to teach the skills required to deliver the strategy:

At the end of 2020 the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland published the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan, (CESAP) setting out the actions we need to take to ensure our workforce is able to support the transition to net zero.

The launch of the Green Jobs Workforce Academy also demonstrates our commitment to providing accessible information on training opportunities and skills transferability to job seekers.

Gathering and communicating data on the demand for green jobs will be crucial in developing and delivering the right skills interventions at the right time. As part of the ongoing CESAP Implementation, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council are currently reviewing training provision in the context of our Heat in Buildings Strategy. The results of the workforce assessment project, detailed above, will serve as an evidence base for this review.

Encouraging potential students to undertake relevant heat in buildings training:

The Modern Apprenticeship (MA) is the key pathway for young people into the heating and plumbing industry. The Scottish Government provides a contribution towards training for Modern Apprenticeships through Skills Development Scotland. The public funded training contribution is structured by age and level, and prioritised to support outcomes within the Scottish Government’s skills and economic strategies.

In addition to the apprenticeship pathway, our National Transition Training Fund aims to tackle the rise in unemployment caused by Covid-19 by offering short sharp training opportunities for people to learn in-demand skills. Projects this year include funding for Historic Environment Scotland, which will deliver training on retrofitting pre-1919 buildings, while the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) will support the delivery of training on Passivhaus construction and retro-fit.

Cost and support to Local Authorities:

Local Authorities do not have a specific role in the provision of training through the modern apprenticeship framework. However, we are keen for Local Authorities to play a constructive role in supporting the supply chain growth required to deliver our Heat in Buildings Strategy.

We will work with Local Authorities in the development of our Heat in Buildings Supply Chain Delivery Plan, to be published next Summer, and consider any role they might have in supporting training provision as part of this work.

The position of Chair of Creative Scotland has attracted remuneration since the organisation was established on 1 July 2010 though no incumbent to date has chosen to accept that offer.

From 1 October 2019 members of Creative Scotland other than the Chair have been entitled to receive a daily fee of £218 per day up to a maximum of £2,616.

The introduction of remuneration for the board members of the other national culture and heritage public bodies has been deferred while the priority has been those bodies’ response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Remuneration will be considered, taking into account those bodies’ charitable status and also Scottish Ministers’ powers to remunerate according to each body’s statute.

"Appropriate" means in accordance with public sector pay policy as it applies to board members of public bodies. The public sector pay policy document is revised on an annual basis.

Health Boards lead on the local delivery of the vaccination programme. Local Health Boards are following Public Health Scotland (PHS) Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance.

We continue to provide advice and support to those who are at highest risk from COVID-19 to allow them to make informed choices about their risks and daily activities.

An updated highest risk list is regularly provided to GPs and NHS Board shielding coordinators. We know how important it is for people that are added to the highest risk list to have support, which is why we provide them with comprehensive information on the additional advice and support available to them. Currently those on the highest risk list are advised to follow the same guidance as the general population.

Anyone who has concerns regarding how they will receive their vaccine, or wish to rearrange their appointment should visit The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine (nhsinform.scot) or contact the national vaccination helpline on 0800 030 8013.

Table 1 highlights data from UCAS showing both the number of applications and number of accepted applicants to pre-registration nursing programmes from 2007 to 2020. Figures for 2021 have not yet been published yet.

Table 1

Applications and acceptances to nursing at Scottish providers by year

Source: UCAS

The guidance on international school and educational visits was updated on 10 November to confirm that international school trips and wider educational and youth work visits can now be arranged. The guidance is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-school-and-youth-work-visits-and-trips/pages/international-educational-visits/