Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00010 on‎ 7 June 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Skills Development Scotland does not report apprenticeship starts by parliamentary constituency or region, but by Local Authority. Published apprenticeship starts from 2019 in the local authorities within the Central Scotland Parliamentary Region are:

The Scottish Government launched the Social Care Staff Support Fund on 25 June 2020 to ensure that social care workers receive their expected income should they be off ill or self-isolating due to coronavirus.

Following detailed review of the financial position, £1.7 billion of additional funding was provided in 2020-21 to support the Health and Social Care Sector in the response to the pandemic.

A total of £561 million was allocated to Integration Authorities for 2020-21, including funding for sustainability payments, in addition to wider social care support, for example for reducing delayed discharges, for loss of income and for other staff costs.

Staffing costs claimed through sustainability payments encompass the Social Care Staff Support Fund, the staff movement policy and other additional staffing arrangements therefore, we do not have data broken down to the level asked for. The guidance for the financial support for social care providers recommends a light touch approach to gathering evidence, recognising the administrative burden of claiming additional costs on both commissioners and providers alike, whilst they respond to the pandemic.

All of these additional costs are recorded through the Local Mobilisation Plans and form an audit record of how funds have been spent.

There is a robust process in place to ensure that public funds are spent appropriately, this consists of a requirement to ensure clear audit trails are in place to record how funding has been spent. Local Authority and Health and Social Care Partnerships will also have their own internal and governance processes in place and Section 95 officers must adhere to their duties in relation to accounting for public funds. This includes ensuring that payments for additional costs are made in line with the guidance.

Feedback from stakeholders confirms that the Social Care Staff Support Fund has been - and continues to be – utilised to prevent financial hardship for eligible social care workers.

NHS Scotland Health Boards use the delivery model which is most suitable for their local circumstances, whilst maintaining a Covid-19 safe environment.

The NHS Dumfries and Galloway system schedules its own appointments using a booking algorithm, which works as follows:

•First checks for GP practices as a vaccination location;

•Then checks for nearest vaccination centre using estimated time to drive to location ( via google maps ) to find the closest centre, there is no upper limit for travel time;

•Repeats step 2 until it finds a vaccination centre with available appointments.

A person would potentially be asked to travel a large distance if there is no capacity at nearby centres. This is managed by NHS Dumfries and Galloway.

Scottish Government officials were instructed to contact NHS Dumfries and Galloway to ascertain if more local vaccination sites can be opened and if more are needed.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway responded that it is monitoring and addressing this. There is re-booking capacity to reduce the risk of appointing patients to venues that would require significant journey times. And NHS D&G continues to review uptake and "did not attend" rates across the region to determine if it is seeing any localities where there is a need to increase our provision to increase uptake rates.

Public Health Scotland plans to publish these data by the end of June 2021, in relation to people who did not attend appointments. The data will be available from Public Health Scotland on the above date.

Paediatric craniofacial surgery in Scotland is delivered by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as a national specialist service commissioned by the National Services Division. Within the Board there is an ambition to develop endoscope assisted surgery as part of a wider practice to correct children with skull deformity due to a craniosynostosis. Physicians from the Board had intended to visit a centre in North America to share best practice but the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in this being postponed.

At present the only nationally designated craniofacial service in the UK that is known to offer endoscope assisted surgery is Great Ormond Street Hospital. Whether a patient should be referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital is dependent on individual clinical circumstances. The perioperative follow-up for patients after this procedure is more complicated as reassessment and repeat helmet fittings are required.

Sentencing decisions are for the independent courts in each case based on the circumstances before them. Courts can already impose electronic monitoring for a range of offences where they deem it appropriate. Sentences such as a Restriction of Liberty Order include an electronically monitored curfew and can include exclusion zones around an address which can also be monitored electronically.

Electronic monitoring can also be a feature of post-release sentence management as a condition of licence. The Parole Board have the ability to recommend licence conditions which can include being electronically monitored at or away from a particular location.

General practices are following Public Health Scotland’s advice to reserve face to face appointments in primary care settings for those consultations where the GP decides it is clinically necessary. This is not just to prevent the general transmission of the coronavirus but to protect general practices as medical spaces for patients who have a clinical reason for face to face attendance.

Public Health Scotland's advice is not tied to the levels Scottish local authorities are in. General practices will remain open regardless but will continue to manage face to face appointments consistent with this advice. At present all patients are still able to get an appointment by telephone or video call.

The Sea Eagle Management Scheme is not an agricultural financial support scheme. It has historically been provided by NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage) to provide practical support which includes advice, loan of scaring equipment and research for livestock farmers and crofters who suffer impacts across the sea eagle breeding range.

One of the objectives of the current White-tailed Eagle Action Plan is to consider whether support of farm and croft management relating to sea eagles should be included in future agri-environment programmes. This will help to develop the right conditions for the sustainable co-existence between sea eagles and sheep farming in ways which benefit the biodiversity, economic and social interests of Scotland.

The Sea Eagle Management Scheme is not a compensation scheme and therefore does not require verification of predation. It is not possible to retrieve all carcasses in suspected predation incidents as sea eagles generally take prey back to their nests. The aim is to support farmers and crofters to manage livestock in the presence of sea eagles and to minimise the risks of possible predation through that management. Applications to the scheme are accepted only where there is known sea eagle activity and after discussions between expert contractors and the applicant to assess the level of sea eagle activity and possible impacts.