- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to tackle the attrition rates of nursing and midwifery students.
Answer
I refer the member to the answers to questions S3W-26574 and S3W-26575 on 10 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
In addition to on-going work, the Delivery Group on Recruitment and Retention and it''s Sub Groups will take forward further work, including initiatives to support high quality practice learning environments for students and the piloting of an absence management process across four higher education institutions.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its press release of 14 December 2007 announcing annual funding of £5 million to support nursing and midwifery students from September 2008 onwards, whether the funding has been made available, how the funding has been spent so far and whether the funding will continue in future years.
Answer
The £5 million funding package, available since 2008-09, is being invested in work to improve the support for nursing and midwifery students throughout their education and training experience. The funding is being spread over several financial years as some initiatives have required significant development before roll out.
A delivery group, with stakeholder and partnership involvement, has been charged with delivering an integrated programme of work and Short-Life Working Groups are leading on key outcomes. These include Data Enhancement, Marketing, Recruitment and Selection, Retention and Practice Learning. Total expenditure by the end of financial year 2009-10 will be in the region of £1.13 million for initiatives to improve student selection and recruitment, successful student retention and transition into employment. The Delivery Group is committed to ensuring that the funding package continues to be disbursed appropriately.
Decisions about future funding will be informed by the evaluation of the delivery group''s work and by decisions about the next spending review.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what activities it has undertaken to tackle the attrition rates of nursing and midwifery students.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26574 on 10 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
The Recruitment and Retention Delivery Group is taking forward a number of specific initiatives to improve student retention on the nursing and midwifery pre-registration education programmes. These include work to ensure better recruitment and selection of students, consistent student progression data, the scoping and development of a national attrition risk identification tool, the introduction of pastoral support advisors in three pilot areas and improving support strategies for leave of absence students.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to reduce the intake of nursing and midwifery students before attrition rates begin to decline and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
The annual intakes for pre-registration nursing and midwifery students are set by the Scottish Government and are informed by the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Planning process. This annual process is embedded within arrangements for healthcare workforce planning across NHS Scotland. The process examines trends, including student attrition and future projections, to support decision making about student intake numbers. The workforce planning process is supported by partnership and other key stakeholders through a virtual network.
No decision has yet been made regarding target student intake numbers for 2010-11.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people diagnosed with epilepsy have died in police custody in the last 10 years.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. The responsibility for maintaining such records lies with individual Scottish Police Forces.
The Executive have supplied the following revised answer (on 16 September 2009):
With the exception of Strathclyde, Scottish Police Forces report no deaths in police custody in the last 10 years where the cause of death was established as epilepsy. Due to records management limitations, Strathclyde effectively reported no similar deaths in the last seven years.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is available to the Scottish Legal Aid Board to ensure that individuals with a diagnosis of epilepsy have access to appropriate expert medical evidence that is made available to the Procurator Fiscal, particularly in cases where post-ictal states or complex partial seizures may have contributed to an alleged offence.
Answer
The responsibility for representing an accused individual''s interests rests with their instructed solicitor and, where appropriate, counsel.
The Crown has an obligation to ensure that all information that is considered material to the prosecution of a case being presented in court is disclosed to the defence agent. Where information is deemed by the Crown not to be material to the case and is withheld from disclosure, the defence agent may make an application to the court to order the Crown to disclose the information.
Should any part of the accused''s defence require investigation of an underlying medical condition, the legal aid scheme provides for the procurement by their solicitor of a report from a suitably qualified medical expert. In deciding whether a request for payment for such a report can be granted, the Scottish Legal Aid Board must be satisfied that obtaining the report will be of material assistance to the defence case, or will materially undermine the Crown case.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to research the characteristics of and possible reasons for people not taking up the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination.
Answer
Final uptake statistics for the first year of the HPV vaccination programme will be published at the end of September and it is not possible to pre-empt what these will say. However, the provisional uptake statistics published in March showed that initial uptake amongst girls in school was very good and anecdotally we understand that this has continued to be the case. The September publication will also provide the first statistics available on the uptake of the vaccine by girls in the catch-up cohort who are no longer in school.
Analysis of the HPV vaccination uptake figures has always been part of the planned public health monitoring and evaluation of the HPV immunisation programme. Where statistics indicate a significant problem in uptake of the vaccination we will look into that in more detail to understand what the reasons may be. This kind of analysis is routinely carried out for other childhood immunisation programmes in Scotland as part of public health monitoring activities.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners in Scottish Prison Service prisons and HMP Kilmarnock are terminally ill.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:
There are currently three prisoners in custody at this time considered to be terminally ill.
This figure does not include prisoners known to be HIV+ or Hepatitis C+ or with other life threatening conditions, as their conditions are not currently regarded as immediately life threatening.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive for how many prisoners in Scottish Prison Service prisons and HMP Kilmarnock applications for release on compassionate grounds are under consideration.
Answer
I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:
There are currently no applications for release on compassionate grounds under consideration in any Scottish prisons, including Kilmarnock and Addiewell. However, three sites are actively considering whether applications should be initiated.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 September 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 9 September 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what training is given to police officers regarding the management of individuals with epilepsy, particularly in post-seizure states, when an offence appears to have been committed.
Answer
At present, epilepsy awareness training is delivered and managed by individual forces. Discussions are due to take place next month between Strathclyde Police and the Chief Executive of Epilepsy Scotland to discuss the provision of training across the emergency services. The Chief Executive of Epilepsy Scotland will also meet next month with representatives from the Scottish Police College to discuss probationer training.
