- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 27 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34608 by Shona Robison on 11 March 2025, whether it is aware of any policy decisions having an impact on the fiscal burden on local authorities as a result of (a) non-teaching staff in educational services increasing individual staff costs and (b) a requirement for a quantity of non-teaching staff to deliver the same educational service, and, if so, how it has factored any such increased burden into its decision-making regarding (a) any such policies and (b) its policies relating to local government funding.
Answer
Answer expected on 27 March 2025
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-35094 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025, whether it has the capacity to (a) identify the number of distinct recipients removed from the claimant count for Adult Disability Payment in a given time frame and (b) break such data down by cause of removal.
Answer
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-34365 by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025, whether it will provide a breakdown of its annual spend on contingent workers since 2021-22 by (a) project, (b) directorate and (c) contract name.
Answer
Answer expected on 20 March 2025
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many recipients of the Adult Disability Payment have been removed from the claimant count in 2024-25 due to (a) the claimant removing themselves, (b) a review identifying fraud, (c) a review identifying a change in health circumstances, (d) death and (e) the claimant moving out of Scotland.
Answer
Official statistics for Adult Disability Payment are routinely published by Social Security Scotland, including information on the number of recipients. Social Security Scotland does not publish statistics on clients leaving the Adult Disability Payment caseload.
Social Security Scotland will continue to review the value of the statistics produced and will take account of users’ needs when developing future publications, in line with Code of Practice for Statistics.
The latest Adult Disability Payment official statistics publication can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics. The next release of Adult Disability Payment statistics, covering the period to the end of January 2025, is due to be published on 18 March 2025.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff are currently employed by Social Security Scotland to identify fraudulent applications.
Answer
It is the responsibility of all Social Security Scotland colleagues to identify and prevent fraudulent applications being awarded.
Social Security Scotland has a zero tolerance to fraud and use a combination of system controls, processes and colleague awareness to prevent it. Mandatory fraud prevention and identification training is provided to all colleagues when they join the organisation.
In support of this Social Security Scotland has a dedicated Counter Fraud branch to further support the organisation in mitigating fraud risk.
Social Security Scotland carefully considers the information on counter fraud activity that can be placed into the public domain to ensure that any information released does not undermine the ability of Social Security Scotland to prevent and detect crime and protect the public purse.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many contractors it has employed in each portfolio area in each year from 2021-22 to 2024-25 to date.
Answer
The following data provides the requested breakdown. Please note, for workforce purposes, the Scottish Government People Directorate defines a contractor as temporary workers, typically brought in under a service contract which has been let to an organisation to deliver a specific product.
A contractor is one subset of our wider Contingent Worker classification.
A Contingent Worker is defined as non directly employed workers that are engaged in any capacity for the Scottish Government, such as contractors, inward secondment and temporary agency workers.
Please also note that workforce data is held within DG areas rather than by Ministerial portfolios.
Headcount of Contingent Workers recorded as Contractor by DG
DG | 31-Mar-22 | 31-Mar-23 | 31-Mar-24 | 30-Sep-24 |
DG COM | 548 | 545 | 376 | 346 |
DG CORP | 229 | 124 | 162 | 149 |
DG ECON | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
DG EJ | 11 | 12 | 4 | 6 |
DG HLTHSC | 31 | 30 | 13 | 12 |
DG NZ | 150 | 136 | 142 | 145 |
DG SE | 11 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
DG SEA | . | 3 | 1 | . |
All | 989 | 869 | 711 | 668 |
It is also relevant to note that data showing expenditure on contingent workers (provided in S6W-34366) cannot be directly compared with the number of contractors (requested in S6W-34364 and S6W-34365 on 28 February 2025). The two data sets have been extracted from different systems and therefore cannot be viewed as directly connected, due to different hierarchical structures and definitions.
The Scottish Government implemented an Oracle Cloud enterprise resource planning system in Autumn 2024, replacing our legacy HR and Finance systems. Though the data capture of temporary workers remains an area requiring some further development, the implementation of a combined HR and Finance system will improve the data we hold on workforce costs.
The Scottish Government has prioritised a reduction in the contingent workforce such as contractors and consultants, as it has reduced its workforce size. This approach has been in partnership with recognised Trade Unions. The number of contingent workers is now 39% lower than in March 2022.
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.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to ensure that funds currently being spent on locum psychiatrists are redirected into sustainable, permanent psychiatry roles that will improve workforce conditions.
Answer
Spend on locum psychiatrists is managed locally by NHS Health Boards. It is our expectation that Boards should always be seeking to secure best value whenever they enter into arrangements regarding use of locums.
We recognise that the use of temporary staff in an organisation as large and complex as NHS Scotland will always be required to ensure vital service provision. However we are taking forward work in partnership with NHS Health Boards, overseen by two national oversight groups, to agree measures designed to reduce our reliance on agency staff, with a view to filling more shifts with staff in either NHS substantive or bank roles.
To address specific challenges in the recruitment and retention of permanent psychiatrist posts in Scotland, we have established a Working Group which is actively considering locum usage and complements the work ongoing nationally. The working group will make a series of recommendations and is due to report to Ministers in Spring 2025.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the reported workforce crisis in relation to psychiatry, in light of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland Locum Psychiatrist Survey, which states that Scotland’s psychiatric workforce is not growing sufficiently to keep pace with the rising scale of demand for services, and that workforce gaps have led to the widespread recruitment of locum psychiatrists, raising patient safety concerns.
Answer
The Scottish Government established the Psychiatry Recruitment and Retention Working Group as committed in the Mental Health Workforce Action Plan (November 2023) to address recruitment and retention challenges facing psychiatry in NHS Scotland.
The working group is actively considering the pipeline of trainee doctors as well as issues such as the use of locum staff and how we can encourage and support applications to permanent positions within NHS Health Boards. We also continue to invest heavily in our future consultant workforce and have created additional training places in psychiatry.
Representatives from the Royal College of Psychiatry in Scotland and the Senior Medical Managers in Psychiatry Group are critical partners in this work.
The working group is due to report to Ministers with recommendations in Spring 2025.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how it is (a) tracking and (b) providing support for any demand for diagnosis, assessment and support for neurodevelopmental conditions in children and young people, in light of the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) waiting lists having been separated to remove these conditions.
Answer
Published national statistics on CAMHS waiting times captures children who meet the CAMHS criteria. Children who require neurodevelopmental support are not reported in these statistics unless they have co-morbid mental health issues. We do not currently collect data on length of waits for neurodevelopmental services centrally.
However, the Scottish Government are working closely with NHS Health Boards and Local Authorities to improve services and support for children and young people and their families and will continue to ensure long waits are appropriately addressed, as well as continue to provide tailored support to NHS Health Boards.
Our National Neurodevelopmental Specification Children and young people - national neurodevelopmental specification: principles and standards of care - gov.scot places an expectation on NHS and Children’s Services to work together to provide the support required by children and families, which may include assessment, diagnosis or other intervention. The Specification makes clear that support should be put in place to meet the child or young person’s requirements when they need it and should not be dependent on a formal diagnosis.
This year we have provided health boards with £123 million to support improvements across a range of mental health services, including neurodevelopmental services. We have also provided local authorities with over £65 million since 2020 to fund community-based mental health supports and services for children and young people aged 5-24 (26 if care-experienced) and their families, including supports for neurodiverse children and young people.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 28 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent contractors it has employed in each year from 2021-22 to 2024-25 to date.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold FTE data on contractors. Information on the headcount of contractor staff whose information is captured in the Human Resources Management Information System statistics are available on the quarterly published statistics on Scottish Government workforce. (Scottish Government workforce statistics - gov.scot).
