Question reference: S5W-02398
- Date lodged: 7 September 2016
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 September 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-00878 by Shona Robison on 19 July 2016, in light of the number of vacancies, what its response is to midwifery graduates from Scotland taking up offers of full-time places in England.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a sustainable supply of midwives and providing attractive employment opportunities for newly qualified midwives in Scotland. In addition to the One Year Job Guarantee Scheme for newly registered midwives and better pay for Agenda for Change staff in Scotland compared to anywhere else in the UK, Scottish Government reintroduced a national Return to Practice scheme from April 2015 to attract former nurses and midwives back into the profession, enabling them to retrain and re-enter employment. There were 111.6 WTE Band 5 midwives employed in NHS Scotland at 30 June 2016, compared to 71.9 WTE employed at 30 June 2014 (Source: ISD Scotland National Statistics release, 6 September 2016: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables.asp)