It is for NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services and ensure that they have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of their services and ensure high quality patient care. As part of this, we expect NHS boards to have robust workforce plans and recruitment and retention policies in place which take account of midwifery vacancies and retirements.

We have increased student midwifery intakes for five years in a row including another 4.9% for 2017-18. We are also providing funding of £450k over 3 years to retrain former midwives and nurses through our national Return to Practice scheme. However, we recognise that challenges still remain and we will continue to work with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and NHS Boards, including NHS Lothian, to ensure we have the right number and mix of midwifery trainees and staff.

To make sure our NHS has the right skills mix, we will introduce national and regional workforce planning. On 1 February 2017 we launched the National Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Discussion Document. We are inviting responses to this consultation by 28 March 2017. The Discussion Document will inform the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan, which will be published in Spring 2017. The consultation is available at the following link:

https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/health-workforce/national-health-and-social-care-workforce-plan/

In addition, our innovative midwifery and workforce planning tools - a UK first - have helped to ensure that NHS Scotland continues to meet the RCM recommended midwife-to-birth ratio. Application of the tools is mandatory across NHS boards.

Although the mitigation of congestion on local roads within Edinburgh is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government recognises the important contribution that Edinburgh makes to the economy of Scotland. With this in mind, Transport Scotland is currently working with regional and local planning and transport authorities, including City of Edinburgh Council, to undertake a cross boundary multi-modal transport study.

This will assess the impact of current and projected future travel demand on the strategic transport network in the South East of Scotland. It will also assist in identifying options for infrastructure and for other measures which can be considered to improve transport in the Edinburgh area.

The Scottish Government is familiar with the content of recent studies. The Scottish Government recognises the important role that Edinburgh and its region plays in the economy of Scotland. As such, Transport Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government, is currently working with regional and local planning and transport authorities to undertake a cross boundary multi-modal transport study to assess the impact of current and projected future travel demand on the strategic transport network in the South East of Scotland.

The information relating to which hospitals do not have dedicated transition services from paediatric to adult care is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives.

The national policy regarding age appropriate hospital care for children and young people was outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009. The national policy considered the importance that transfer from paediatric to adult services should be the culmination of a period of planned transition care and emphasises the need for good transition arrangements for young people moving into the adult care sector across all specialities.

The Scottish Government has supported and funded Crohn’s and Colitis UK in the production of “Scotland Leading the Way - a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland”, which seeks support NHS boards in improving care and treatment for all people living with inflammatory bowel disease in Scotland.

The Blueprint makes a number of recommendations for NHS boards in relation to the care of treatment and young people and including the need to have standardised transition to adult services.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's State of Child Health report which reaffirms the work currently underway across government to improve child health. The Scottish Government is carefully considering all of the recommendations in the report to identify any further work needed.

Many of the report's recommendations are already being taken forward in Scotland including: rolling out the Family Nurse Partnership to reach every eligible teenage mother in Scotland by the end of 2018; prioritisation and expansion of the health visiting service provided to families; bringing forward a Child Poverty Bill for Scotland; maintaining our commitment to support people in Scotland affected by the UK Government's welfare cuts; providing a Baby Box for all newborn babies; progress in achieving the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly best practice standards; placing relationships, sexual health and parenthood education at the centre of the school curriculum; achieving the target of halving exposure to second hand smoke through the Take it Right Outside campaign five years early; investing in a range of programmes to support and encourage healthy eating; investing in free school meals for all primary one to three children; investing in physical education in schools; exceeding our target of delivering 150 Community Sport Hubs across all local authorities; working on a new Mental Health Strategy which will focus on the earliest and most effective interventions to prevent children and young people from becoming ill; and committing to producing an overarching child health and wellbeing strategy to consolidate all of the actions.

Any prescribing or referral for psychological therapies treatment is a clinical decision for a patient’s doctor in discussion with the patient and in terms of anti-depressants there is good evidence that GPs assess and treat depression appropriately. All GPs prescribing is monitored and discussed individually through annual appraisal. Audit of prescribing in mental health commonly occurs involving Health Board pharmacy departments. There is National annual reporting of prescribing patterns and trends which are carefully considered by Government and other agencies.

Data is published by Information Services Division on the number of people referred to psychological therapies and starting treatment each quarter, Psychological Therapies Waiting Times In NHSScotland, as well as on the level of prescribing for mental health published on an annual basis, Medicines used in Mental Health, which includes the level of prescribing for anti-depressants. These reports are available online at http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/. The Scottish Government has also published “Key Information on the use of Antidepressants in Scotland” which can be found online at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00456540.pdf.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives.

The national policy regarding age appropriate hospital care for children and young people was outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009. The national policy considered the importance that transfer from paediatric to adult services should be the culmination of a period of planned transition care and emphasises the need for good transition arrangements for young people moving into the adult care sector across all specialities.

The Scottish Government has supported and funded Crohn’s and Colitis UK in the production of “Scotland Leading the Way - a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland”, which seeks support NHS Boards in improving care and treatment for all people living with inflammatory bowel disease in Scotland.

The Blueprint further reinforces the need makes a number of recommendations specific to this area. A number of trials have taken place across Scotland including virtual and telephone clinics, the trial has meant that patients can avoid long journeys to physical clinics, also ensuring the necessary care could be provided in the appropriate timescale to support the patient.

At 31 January 2017 there were 1,149 care homes for adults operating.

Of these, 853 were care homes for older people and 296 were care homes for other adults, primarily adults with disabilities. Care homes provide a variety of services and support people who are funded in different ways.

We estimate that there are around 700 Intermediate Care beds across Scotland. These beds are commissioned by individual Integration Joint Boards to provide short-term rehabilitation and reablement in a more homely setting, following an acute episode of care, with the aim or returning the person back to their own home.

Many more care home places are commissioned by health and social care partnerships to support people with a range of needs.

Record keeping of an individual’s care is an important aspect of a nurse’s role and contributes to ensuring quality of care. As part of their role nurses and midwives must keep clear and accurate records relevant to their practice. This requirement is set out in the revised Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code, which came in to effect from 31 March 2015, and further details of the requirements can be found at - https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf

In addition as part of our Excellence in Care work programme, led by our Chief Nursing Officer, we will be including work on record keeping.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland funded the SAPPHIRE (Social Science APPlied to Healthcare Improvement REsearch) group at University of Leicester to carry out an independent evaluation of the sepsis VTE collaborative. The evaluation report was published in 2015 and is available on the Scottish Patient Safety Programme website: (http://www.scottishpatientsafetyprogramme.scot.nhs.uk). Information on the breakdown of results by NHS board is not held centrally.