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Work to upgrade the ventilation system within ward 16 of University Hospital Monklands is expected to be complete by the end of the calendar year.

Golden Jubilee Phase 1 opened its doors to patients in December 2020, NTC Fife treated its first patient on 20 March, NTC Highland opened on 17 April of this year, NTC Forth Valley is due to open in summer 2023 with Golden Jubilee Phase 2 due to open in winter 2023.

A first release of Official Statistics on Winter Heating Payment will be published on 06 June 2023, covering up to 31 March 2023. Subject to disclosure control, the publication will include breakdowns of applications and payments by channel, including paper forms. The figures will also be reported as percentages of total applications received. These will be available on Social Security Scotland’s statistics publication page at:

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications .

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Data on the number of people who are eligible for the payment is not available.

The Scottish Government’s ambition, shared with COSLA, is for a trauma-informed workforce and services across Scotland. Since 2018, we have invested over £6 million in a National Trauma Training Programme, which provides freely available, evidence-based trauma training resources developed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and informed by experts by experience.

A trauma-informed approach has been incorporated into all learning plans for Social Security Scotland colleagues including recoveries officers. In addition to this, all recoveries officers undertake bespoke learning on understanding the potential impact of bereavement and having sensitive conversations. Specialist training in relation to vulnerability and debt collection has also been commissioned from Money Advice Scotland.

Due to the ongoing unprecedented challenging financial context the timetable for delivery of the remaining measures in the act has been revised in order to effectively fund the development and delivery of each provision. While full implementation of the Act will take place over a longer period of time, the revised timings will continue to deliver clear, tangible incremental progress, subject to parliamentary process:

• Firework Control Zone provisions will commence in advance of bonfire night 2023 as originally planned. Guidance for local authorities on how to consider and designate zones will be published to coincide with the powers coming into force.
• The personal fireworks licensing scheme will begin operating in autumn 2024 at the earliest – work is currently underway to procure and develop the IT system for this
• The implementation of the restricted days of supply and use provisions is paused to a future financial year. This includes the compensation regulation making power, which is attached specifically to restricted days of supply.

We will continue to monitor and evaluate the impact of each of the provisions as they are delivered to encourage the safer use of fireworks and reduce firework related harm and injury.

Social Security Scotland’s priority is to get decisions right first time and an extremely low number of re-determinations are carried out. The re-determination request rate for Child Disability Payment decisions made by Social Security Scotland is 4.6%, which indicates that the vast majority of clients are happy with the initial decision.

Re-determinations are an important part of the decision-making process as they give clients the opportunity to ask Social Security Scotland to look at their application afresh before lodging an appeal.

Child Disability Payment decisions are usually changed at re-determination stage because the client provides additional information that was not available when the initial decision was made. Social Security Scotland staff now make additional contact with clients at the initial decision stage. While this may add to overall processing times, it will help ensure that such information is available first time round.

Social Security Scotland directly employed 3,976 staff (headcount) as at December 2022. Of this amount, 69 were fixed term, fixed term student placements and modern apprentices. The remaining 3,907 staff were permanent.

Information on Social Security Scotland’s workforce are published quarterly with the most recent statistics from December 2022 published 14 March 2023, published workforce statistics .

Official Statistics covering the number of Scottish Child Payment applications received and processed are published as part of the regularly scheduled quarterly publication. The latest Scottish Child Payment statistical publication was released on 28 February 2023.

The next publication will be published on 30 May 2023 and will include information on the number of applications received and processed by the end of March 2023. Official Statistics for Scottish Child Payment can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/statistics/social-security-scotland-statistics-publications

Recommendation 19 of the Strategic Transport Projects Review 2 (STPR2) recommends a review of station accessibility across Scotland. This will identify and remove barriers to travel and improve access for all to the rail network, prioritising those stations that have particular accessibility related issues. The anticipated timeline for completion of the review remains Spring 2024.

Transport Scotland is currently waiting for release of the Department for Transport (DfT) accessibility audit review findings in order to inform the STPR2 work.

Rail accessibility remains reserved to the UK Government, which is not an appropriate arrangement for Scotland’s Railway. Nonetheless Transport Scotland officials work closely with the DfT in identifying priorities for the allocation of UK Access for All funding in Scotland.

Transport Scotland officials regularly meet with the Mobility and Access Committee Scotland (MACS) to ensure that Ministers are provided with relevant and accurate advice and information on accessibility needs in Scotland. Transport Scotland also works with ScotRail and Network Rail to ensure that accessibility forms a key part of any Scottish Government funded investment projects and operational policy.

The requested information on how many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link: Pharmacy report 2022 | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The requested information on how many (c) advanced nursing practitioners and (e) mental health workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following links:

Advanced nurse practitioners: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (LoSD (only N&M) & AHP) tab

Psychiatric specialty consultants and mental health nurses: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (consultant and nursing & midwifery drop downs)

Child and Adolescent Mental health Services: 07 March 2023 CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The requested information on how many advanced paramedics, musculoskeletal physiotherapists and community link workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 is not centrally held.

Information on how many paramedics and physiotherapists have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link:

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (allied health professional drop down)