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On 20 November the Scottish Government wrote to Health Boards to set out workforce requirements for the initial phase of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

This letter included a breakdown of WTE Vaccinators by Health Board:

Given the scale of the COVID-19 Vaccination programmes and the unprecedented demands put on health services two organisations, KPMG and Cap Gemini, had been contracted to provide non-healthcare related support.

KPMG had been contracted to provide administrative support to the planning and delivery of a Covid-19 vaccination programme. KPMG identified areas of challenge and best practices that need to be resolved or built upon the delivery of the vaccine programme. The group was contracted between May 2020 to January 2021.

The second area was around workforce planning model was outsourced to Cap Gemini the delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations. The Cap Gemini contract built on the work undertaken on seasonal flu modelling to ensure that we had a detailed understanding of national and board level workforce requirements for delivery. We used this modelling in tandem with Health Boards’ own COVID-19 plans to provide assurance that we have sufficient staff capacity across NHS Scotland. The contract lasted for 3 weeks which started on 19 October 2020.

Once we have offered vaccination to initial priority groups, we will continue to follow the JCVI advice by inviting adults under 50 who have not yet received the vaccine in age cohorts, as follows:

• All those aged 40-49 years
• All those aged 30-39 years
• All those aged 18-29 year.

This is supported by evidence that the risk of hospitalisation and critical care admission with COVID-19 increases with age. Those at highest risk of hospitalisation outside of cohorts 1-9 are those aged 40-49 years.

This information is outlined in the published 'COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan 2021’.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): vaccine deployment plan 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Availability of vaccine supply is a key factor in determining the size of the vaccination workforce deployed at any given time and we are in ongoing dialogue with Health Boards regarding workforce requirements as the programme progresses.

I wrote on 5 February to all MSPs which included details of how COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed.

Our work is led by JCVI and delivery is dependent on supply.

Number of vaccines administered is included as part of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) data . The publication also includes information on numbers vaccinated in the priority groups and weekly information about vaccine supply.

Local data can be found on Public Health Scotland’s interactive dashboard including vaccinations by council area .

Vaccines are procured by the UK Vaccines Taskforce on a 4 Nations basis.

Supply information is commercially sensitive, and in line with arrangements across the 4 Nations we now publish information about supply once per week on the Scottish Government website here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/

This information shows total cumulative supply allocated to and delivered into Scotland each week.

Number of vaccines administered is included as part of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) data and this includes the numbers of care homes residents that have been vaccinated. The publication also includes information on numbers vaccinated in the priority groups and weekly information about vaccine supply.

Local data can be found on Public Health Scotland’s interactive dashboard including vaccinations by council area .

To ensure that everyone has access to information about Covid-19 Vaccination, we have introduced Covid-19 Hotline here: (0800 030 8013).

The Covid-19 helpline was firstly introduced at start of the programme on 8 December 2020 and the rebooking service was added on 25 January 2021.

For further general information about the coronavirus vaccine and its delivery is also available at NHS Inform