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The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all veterans living in Scotland are able to access the best possible mental health care and support.

Scottish veterans are able to access support from the two veteran-specific mental health and wellbeing providers, Combat Stress and Veterans First Point (V1P). This year we awarded £658,000 to V1P and £1,424,090 to Combat Stress to continue to provide mental health support to veterans.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has worked in partnership with See Me , providing £50,000 to tackle stigma and promote the importance of veterans seeking help for mental health issues.

The Veterans Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan was published in December 2021 and the Veterans Mental Health Implementation Board has now been established to take forward the actions to improve access to mental health services for veterans.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including the procedure for reporting road defects/damage on local authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas, including how the public report issues, and no formal guidance is issued on this matter.

SCOTS (the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) – www.scotsnet.org , are responsible for implementing new materials and best practice on local road maintenance.

The Scottish Government does not hold the required level of information to assess levels of income that Scottish Universities derive from the enrolment of Chinese students.

In 2021-2022 Academic Year, the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) paid a total of £219.6m in higher education tuition fee awards for eligible Scottish domiciled students. In addition, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) allocated approximately £694m in block teaching grants to universities in respect of funded places.

In my statement to parliament in November last year I stated I had recently launched Leading to Change, the Scottish Government’s national leadership development programme, for health, social work and social care. More information can be found on the website: Leading to Change | Leadership Development | NHS Scotland

a) The budget for Leading to Change is £978,000 for year 2022-23.

b) We have conducted user research to ascertain the programme’s reach and to ensure it fully meets the user needs. As of 9 January the following data applies:

• Website ; 7,774 users, 30,731 page views - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023 (18:00);
• 1983 people signed up to distribution list - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023 (18:00);
• 10,238 registered users on the Leading to Change app - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023
• Twitter 5,569 followers as at 9th January 2023 (accounts were @ProjectLiftScot pre 3rd October 2022)
• 964 colleagues attended 11 events - 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023
• 107 colleagues on longer term leadership development programmes delivered or co-delivered by Leading to Change between Sept 22 – 09 January 2023 (some programme began before the launch date)
• 178/200 available Leadership Live subscriptions (22 pending) 3rd October 2022 (launch) to 9th January 2023

c) By ensuring we invest in leadership development we are supporting our valuable front line services to create the conditions and culture that are critical to delivering better outcomes for the people who use our services. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the core of the Leading to Change programme with tailored and targeted interventions being delivered to increase and support the diverse workforce.

An update on the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care will be published later this year.

In March 2022 the Scottish Government published the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. Following publication of the strategy, the Scottish Government has established a Workforce Data Information and Intelligence Improvement Programme to support further improvement in data collation, quality and evidence triangulation. This programme is focused specifically on improving the quality and granularity of existing data sets, alongside considering the requirements for gathering new or different data to support better decision making, workforce and service planning.

The Scottish Government is providing a range of recruitment support, as well as training and development activity to assist Health Boards with securing the right mix of new and experienced staff for their NTCs.

Detailed plans relating to the size and composition of the workforce for each NTC site has been or will be developed by the relevant territorial NHS Board and submitted to the Scottish Government as part of the wider planning and approval process for the site in operation.

The information on how many Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff there have been in each year since 2007 can be found: CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The staff in post tab provides quarterly data for CAMHS workforce.

The Women’s Health Plan sets out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for women and girls.

The Plan includes actions to develop a menopause/menstrual health policy for NHS Scotland staff in 2023. I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13514 on 16 January 2023 for an update on the development of a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland. 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 .

The Plan also contains an action to encourage Health Boards to participate in the Equally Safe at Work accreditation scheme. I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13539 on 23 January 2023 for an update on progress on this action.

The Race Equality Immediate Priorities Plan (IPP) Annex B contains actions under systemic recommendation 4 (Fair Work Practices) to support minority ethnic staff. Data recommendations 10, 11 and 14 also contain actions on monitoring workforce data, NHS workforce data and accountability and governance. These are published online at: Annex B - Immediate Priorities for Race Equality 2021-23 - Race equality: immediate priorities plan - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .’

To date, the NHSScotland ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies Programme has refreshed the following PIN policies and process:

• Attendance
• Bullying and Harassment
• Capability
• Conduct
• Grievance
• Workforce Policies Investigation Process

In addition, the NHSScotland Whistleblowing Policy that includes the National Whistleblowing Standards was published in April 2021.

Following a pause due to the pandemic, the ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies programme of work formally restarted in June 2022. The review of the suite of Supporting the Work-Life Balance Policies that include flexible working arrangements and the Homeworking Policy (now known as the NHSScotland Flexible Work Location Policy) is currently at an advanced stage.

The programme policy development schedule is reviewed at each stage to enable response to service pressures and prioritised policy needs. Requests for new policies are considered by the ‘Once for Scotland’ Workforce Policies Programme Board.

The information on how many additional Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff has been recruited by the Scottish Government in each year since 2007 is not centrally held.

The information on CAMHS workforce staff in post can be found in the following link: CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The Employee Turnover tab gives the number of joiners and leavers from year ending March 2012 to March 2022. Data for preceding years are not available.

Joiners are employees who are in post as at 31 March of a particular year and were not in post at 31 March of the previous year.

Leavers are employees who were in post as at 31 March of the previous year and not in post at 31 March year of the present year.