Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-28677

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government who its special advisers are, and what portfolios they cover.

Special Advisers are appointed in accordance with Part 1 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 by the First Minister as a Special Adviser for the purpose of providing assistance to the Scottish Ministers. There are currently 12 Special Advisers.

The Scottish Government has published a list of the Special Advisers and their specific portfolio responsibilities at: Special advisers - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-28713

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many university places have been available for medical students who are (a) Scotland-domiciled, (b) from the rest of the UK and (c) from overseas, in each of the last 10 years.

The number of undergraduate medical school places available since 2015, broken down by domicile, has been provided in the following table. As requested, these reflect the places available, rather than the eventual entrants.

Academic year (A/Y)	Scots/ Rest of the UK (rUK)/RoI/Gibraltar	International	Total Per year
2015-16	784	64	848
2016-17	834	64	898
2017-18	834	64	898
2018-19	889	64	953
2019-20	949	64	1013
2020-21	974	64	1038
2021-22	1039 (of which 790 must be Scottish domiciled)	78	1117
2022-23	1239	78	1317
2023-24	1339	78	1417
2024-25	1339	78	1417

It should be noted that there is no separate target for students from the rest of the UK (rUK); instead, these students are considered to be home students in line with students from the RoI and Gibraltar.

Question reference: S6W-28704

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses have been employed by each NHS board, in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-28703

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated number of vacancies is for (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses in NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board, and what the vacancy rate was in each of the last five years.

Information on the number of vacancies for (a) paediatric nurses in NHS Scotland, broken down by NHS board can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: Dashboards | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot) (Vacancy tab)

Information on the number of vacancies and vacancy rates for (b) neonatal nurses in not centrally collected.

Information on paediatric nursing vacancy rates across NHS Scotland in each of the last five years can be found in the following table:

Vacancy rate	Dec-19	Dec-20	Dec-21	Dec-22	Dec-23
Paediatric Nursing	5.5%	2.1%	12.5%	8.8%	5.3%

NOTE: Vacancy rates for Mar 2024 are currently unavailable and will be published on TURAS on 13 August.

Question reference: S6W-28709

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much was spent on primary care (a) in cash terms and (b) as a percentage of the overall NHS budget, in each year from 2007-08 to 2023-24, and how much it anticipates will be spent in 2024-25.

The amount spent by NHS Boards on Family Health Services (FHS), which includes the four primary care contractors, is reported in the annual Cost Book published by Public Health Scotland. This information is publicly available on the PHS website: Costs Book publication - Costs Book - Finance within the NHS - Acute and emergency services - Our areas of work - Public Health Scotland We would expect the 2023-24 data to be published in February 2025 and the 2024-25 data to be published in February 2026. The Scottish budget, including NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care is published on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Budget - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Question reference: S6W-28700

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many graduate nurses have been employed by NHS Scotland in 2024, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) speciality.

The requested information on how many graduate nurses have been employed by NHS Scotland in 2024, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) speciality is not centrally held.

Information on the number of nursing staff joining the NHS broken down by band, NHS board and specialty can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce (phase one) | Turas Data Intelligence (turnover tab)

Question reference: S6W-28701

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 2024 cohort of graduate (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses have secured jobs in NHS Scotland, and how many have not been able to secure a post.

The requested information on how many of the 2024 cohort of graduate (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal nurses have secured jobs in NHS Scotland, and how many have not been able to secure a post is not centrally held.

Information on the number of nursing staff joining the NHS broken down by band, NHS board and specialty can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce (phase one) | Turas Data Intelligence (turnover tab)

Question reference: S6W-28706

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 6 August 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much money it costs to train a (a) paediatric and (b) neonatal student nurse at a Scottish university.

The Scottish Government package of support for Scottish domiciled student nurses, midwives and paramedics remains the highest level of support offered in the UK.

Annual Student Cost Breakdown

Teaching Grant to University (subject to change)

£7,775

Tuition Fees to University (subject to change)

£1,820

Annual Bursary

£10,000

Uniform Costs

On average £54.72

Health Checks

On average £233.79

Disclosure Checks: Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme (PVG)

Costs for the scheme:

? £59 to join the scheme

? £59 or £18 to update membership (cost dependent on whether the PVG member needs to apply to work with a new vulnerable group)

Additionally, students are entitled to claim travel allowances, the amount will be variable dependent on the students circumstances.

There are also a range of additional allowances eligible students may be entitled to claim such as:

? Dependents allowance of up to £3,640 a year;

? Single Parents’ Allowance of up to £2,303 a year;

? Childcare Allowance for parents of up to £2,466 a year;

? Disable Students’ Allowance which will be variable dependent on the students requirements

Over a three year degree the average cost to train a nurse or midwife is in the region of £60,000 plus allowances and clinical placement expenses.

With regards to neonatal nurses, although a newly qualified nurse or midwife after completing their relevant pre-registration programme can be employed within a neonatal unit, a specific neonatal qualification is undertaken post-registration following an appropriate period of clinical experience. This is currently delivered by Edinburgh Napier University as a Neonatal Care - Qualified in Speciality postgraduate certificate (SCQF Level 11) part-time blended course, typically undertaken over 1 year. The current tuition fee is £1575 for Scottish & Rest of UK students, which is funded through Health Boards. Tuition fees are subject to an annual review and may increase from one year to the next.

Question reference: S6W-28712

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 30 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether the GP Sustainability Loan Scheme has now been restarted, and, if this is not the case, whether it will provide an update on when the scheme will be resumed.

We intend to resume Tranche 1 of the Sustainability Loan Scheme in 2024-25 once we have completed the disbursement of funds for those loans already completed and confirmed a budget. This will likely not be until midway through the financial year.

Our preference remains to continue the loan scheme into Tranche 2 and beyond – however, this is dependant on whether the UK Government resumes the allocation of Financial Transaction Capital to the Scottish Government.

Question reference: S6W-28322

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the occupancy rate of (a) general and (b) acute beds in hospitals has been in each of the last 12 months, also broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) hospital.

A copy of the associated data table has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib no. 65175 which provides information on the occupancy rates of acute specialty beds and all beds in hospitals between January 2023 and the end of December 2023. The data are broken down by quarter, NHS board and hospital. These data are from the Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) publication which is available on the Public Health Scotland website Methods used to produce this data release - Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Quarter ending 31 December 2023 - Acute hospital activity and NHS beds information (quarterly) - Publications - Public Health Scotland and provides further data on beds and hospital activity in Scotland along with definitions and data quality notes.

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