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SCSWIS employed 289 inspection staff as at 1 April 2011. These figures are not directly comparable to the number of inspectors employed by the predecessor bodies because not all the functions of the predecessor bodies transferred to SCSWIS. There are also efficiencies in the delivery of functions through the creation of the new body.

At 1 April 2010 the Care Commission employed 590 staff, Social Work Inspection Agency employed 64 staff and HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) employed 213 staff. HMIe is also a predecessor organisation to Education Scotland.

At 1 April 2010 the Care Commission had 320 inspection staff. SWIA had 20 inspection staff but also used sessional inspectors on a part time fee contract basis and at 1 April 2010 there were 17 sessional inspectors. HM Inspectorare of Education (HMIe) had 107 inspectors. HMIe is a predecessor body to both SCSWIS and Education Scotland.

At 1 April 2011, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland employed 550 staff. This figure is not directly comparable to the figures for the predecessor bodies because not all the functions of the predecessor bodies transferred to SCSWIS, notably the schools inspection function has gone to Education Scotland and the regulation of independent healthcare has gone to Healthcare Improvement Scotland. There are also efficiencies in the delivery of functions through the creation of the new body.

The information requested is contained in the following table.

Table 1: Student Studying for an Undergraduate Qualification in Podiatry at the Scottish Higher Education Institutions, 2007-08 to 2009-10

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

Figures are derived from individual student returns collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The Scottish Government supports the expansion of podiatric surgery across NHSScotland and a number of NHS boards are already designing orthopaedic services, using the expertise of podiatrists and physiotherapists, to triage patients and ensure they are seen promptly by the most appropriate healthcare professional.

Building on the podiatric surgery pilot in NHS Greater Glasgow, the Scottish Government has tasked NHS Education for Scotland to develop an accredited surgical training model to educate trainee podiatrists in podiatric surgery. A steering group has been formed to oversee this work, and its membership is drawn from the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists (also the Faculty of Podiatric Surgery), the Royal College of Orthopaedic Surgeons (Edinburgh), the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow), the British Orthopaedic Association, the Health Professions Council and higher education institutions.

We expect the training model to be made available by the end of this year.

The Scottish Funding Council does not allocate specific amounts of funding for podiatry. Podiatry falls within the Scottish Funding Council’s Other Health and Welfare funding subject group. The table below provides the gross funding for teaching allocated to the undergraduate level of the Other Health and Welfare funding subject group. The table notes provide further information on funding arrangements and how subject funding relates to provision.

Table 1: Gross funding for teaching allocated to the undergraduate level of the Other Health and Welfare funding subject group for Higher Education Institutions offering podiatry provision, 2007-08 to 2010-11:

Source: Scottish Funding Council.

The Scottish Funding Council does not allocate specific amounts of funding for podiatry. Podiatry falls within the Scottish Funding Council’s Other Health and Welfare funding subject group. The funding for Other Health and Welfare excludes funding for nursing and midwifery pre-registration provision that is controlled.

The Scottish Funding Council allocates a gross amount of funding to each funding subject group for each level of study (taught postgraduate, undergraduate) dependent on the number of funded places allocated to the group and the unit of resource for the group. For each institution, an estimate of the amount of tuition fee income associated with an institution’s total allocation of funded places is removed from the gross funding for teaching to obtain the allocations of Main Teaching Grant.

Institutions are not expected to match their allocations of funding per funding subject group in terms of their spend on teaching provision. Also institutions have certain flexibility in terms of how they use their allocations of funded places. Institutions might not end up with as much provision as their allocation of funded places in one subject area but instead might have more provision than funded places in another subject area.

The total gross funding for teaching for each university excludes funding for any strategic places funded through the Scottish Funding Council’s Horizon Fund and for any additional places funded by the Scottish Government.

The EU Council Recommendation on An Action in the field of Rare Diseases was published on 8 June 2009, and contains a number of recommendations for EU member states to take forward between now and 2013, including “plans and strategies in the field of rare diseases”. Led by the Department of Health all four UK Health Departments are working together to prepare a national (UK) plan for rare diseases and are taking into account Rare Disease UK’s (RDUK) Improving Lives, Optimising Resources: A Vision for the UK Rare Disease Strategy report, designed to inform the UK plan.

The draft plan is in its very early stages. However, it is understood that officials from the Department of Health intend to meet with representatives from RDUK in August, to provide them with an update of the progress that has been made.

The Scottish Government is also committed to taking forward the strategic vision in Scotland in discussion with RDUK and we have offered to meet them as the plan develops.

Information on the number of allied health professional staff by profession, including podiatry, broken down by NHS board, is published on the NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Division (ISD) website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/publications/2011-0628/AHP.xls.

The National Records of Scotland, like its predecessor bodies, has always charged the same prices to MSPs as to members of the public.