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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-17297

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of any unmet need for social care is in each local authority area across Scotland.

Information published by Public Health Scotland ( Social care – Demand for Care at Home services ) provides the number of people waiting for a social care assessment, as well as the number of people who have been assessed and are waiting for a package of care. These figures, however, represent only a subset of unmet need.

Scottish Government analysts are considering options for increasing our understanding of the nature and level of unmet need in adult social care, and will continue to engage with external partners to develop appropriate approaches and deliver new insights over the coming months.

Question reference: S6W-17293

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is between someone being assessed and then advised that they are in need of social care and the provision being put in place.

Information on Social Care Eligibility and Waiting times is collected and published by the Scottish Government and this includes waiting times between completion of a community care assessment and delivery of personal care services (for which there is a six week target). The latest data are publicly available via the following link: Social Care Eligibility Criteria And Waiting Times, Scotland, 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Many Local Authorities have reported difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection, which has had a significant impact on the robustness of the information available for analysis. We are working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to consider the future of this data and are developing plans to capture waiting times data within existing Social Care collections returned to PHS, aiming to make it more straightforward for partnerships to provide data, and in turn resulting in more complete and consistent data in the future.

For those able to provide data for 2020-21, around 81% of people aged 65 and over waited less than 6 weeks between completion of a community care assessment and delivery of a personal care service (based on 15 LAs). For people aged 18-64, this figure was slightly lower at 74% (based on 20 LAs) (see annex 4 of the tables which accompany the release).

Question reference: S6W-17291

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland had been assessed for social care and were waiting for a care package to be delivered on 1 January 2023.

On 2 January 2023, the number of people waiting for social care support assessment was 5,440. The latest data published by Public Health Scotland (PHS) shows that there were 4,122 waiting for a social care support assessment on 17 April 2023.

Please note:

Scotland estimates are derived by summing the number of people waiting from the partnerships. This excludes one Health and Social Care Partnership who were unable to supply data.
Figures are collected each Monday.

Source: Public Health Scotland, Social care – Demand for Care at Home services , published 25 April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-17284

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its assessment is of how many social care staff are required to meet demand.

There are more than 1,200 social care providers across Scotland, with local authorities responsible for providing or commissioning services. Local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships will wish to ensure that, in providing a range of services, their workforce planning arrangements take full account of the need to have safe and sustainable numbers of staff.

The latest figures published by Public Health Scotland show that, on 17 April, the total number of hours of social care support yet to be provided was 38,324.

Question reference: S6W-17281

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many people over 65 were in receipt of care (a) home and (b) at home services in each year since 2007.

a) Information on care home residents is reported on through the Care Home Census, published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). Information is published on a rolling 10-year basis; therefore, the figures below have been sourced from multiple Care Home Census publications. This includes historic extracts of publications from NHS Information Services Division, prior to the creation of Public Health Scotland. The Care Home Census was not run in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Table 1: The estimated number of care home residents aged 65+ years, 2007 – 2022

Year	Estimated Number of Care Home Residents aged 65+ years
2007	31,522
2008	30,954
2009	31,378
2010	31,384
2011	31,653
2012	31,295
2013	30,985
2014	31,354
2015	30,768
2016	31,197
2017	30,570
2018	29,654
2019	30,419
2020	n/a
2021	28,602
2022	28,647

b) Information on the number of people aged 65+ years who receive care at home services has been collected by Public Health Scotland and published as part of their Insights In Social Care publication since 2018. Prior to this, data was collected by Scottish Government through the Social Care Survey from 2013 – 2017 and the Home Care Census prior to 2013. Therefore, changes between years should be interpreted with caution due to the differences between data sources, particularly between 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Table 2: The estimated number of people aged 65+ years receiving care at home services, 2006/07 – 2021/22

Year	Estimated number of people aged 65+ years receiving care at home services
2006/07	56,700
2007/08	55,340
2008/09	54,720
2009/10	53,660
2010/11	51,730
2011/12	51,120
2012/13	50,370
2013/14	50,440
2014/15	50,160
2015/16	48,920
2016/17	48,800
2017/18	46,610
2018/19	48,590
2019/20	47,065
2020/21	47,465
2021/22	44,640

Question reference: S6W-17288

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what data is available to help potential users of social care services to understand waiting times for service provision.

Information on Social Care Eligibility and Waiting times is collected and published by the Scottish Government. This is publicly available via the following link: Social Care Eligibility Criteria And Waiting Times, Scotland, 2020-21 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Many Local Authorities have reported difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection, which has had a significant impact on the robustness of the information available for analysis. We have been working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) to consider the future of this data and are developing plans to capture waiting times data within existing Social Care collections returned to PHS, aiming to make it more straightforward for partnerships to provide data, and in turn resulting in more complete and consistent data in the future.

Question reference: S6W-17286

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 2 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the average pay is for social care staff employed in the (a) private, (b) public and (c) third sector.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the average pay rates for social care staff across the private, public and third sector.

From April 2023, adult social care workers delivering direct care in commissioned services will see their pay increase to a minimum of £10.90 per hour; in line with the Real Living Wage rate for the 2023-24 Financial Year.

These are the minimum rates of pay for these workers and many providers choose to pay more than these minimums.

Question reference: S6W-17345

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress on the construction of a new grade-separated junction on the A720 at Sheriffhall.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the grade separation of Sheriffhall roundabout, as part of its £300 million commitment to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Following publication of the draft Orders and Environmental Statement, Transport Scotland received a significant number of objections to the proposed scheme. Although Transport Scotland engaged widely with objectors, it was unable to resolve all objections. In view of this, a Public Local Inquiry was held from 31 January to 8 February 2023. As with all trunk road projects this is the appropriate statutory forum for considering objections received and not withdrawn. The independent Reporter is now giving detailed consideration to all evidence before making recommendations to the Scottish Ministers for a decision.

Construction of the proposed scheme can only commence if it is approved under the relevant statutory authorisation process and thereafter a timetable for its progress can be set.

Question reference: S6O-02113

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many social care posts remain unfilled across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-15713

Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 March 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what the administration cost has been to date of delivering the (a) Social Security Scotland agency and (b) Scottish Child Payment.

Social Security Scotland’s administration costs are published in our Annual Report and Accounts . This document is laid before the Scottish Parliament annually.

Since 2018 our Annual Report and Accounts have recorded administration costs of:

2018-2019 - £12.8 million (part year)

2019-2020 - £36.0 million

2020-2021 - £130.3 million

2021-2022 - £194.9 million

These figures are the total cost of the organisation, which includes the cost of administering the Scottish Child Payment.

As Social Security Scotland staff and systems are organised to provide more than one form of assistance, it is not possible to separately identify the cost of Scottish Child Payment administration.