Funding pledged to NHS Grampian for school nursing: FOI release

Information requested

Of the £60 million pledged by the Scottish Government to school nursing, how much has been allocated to NHS Grampian for each year from 2018 to 2024 inclusive?

Response

You have referenced a £60 million fund pledged to school nursing. We believe the reference to £60 million has come from a commitment in the Programme for Government in 2018, which pledgedto invest over £60 million to create around 350 counsellors in school education across Scotland and ensure that every secondary school has counselling services. The funding provided to school nursing was only part of this overall bundle. We can provide the detail of the funding that was directly used for the recruitment and training of additional school nurses, as set out in the Programme for Government commitment in 2018.

Between the financial years 2019/20 and 2023/24, £3,383,600.00 was allocated to NHS Grampian to support the staff costs of additional school nurses recruited in furtherance of the school nursing commitment in the 2018 Programme for Government.

During the same time period, £1,307,182.00 was provided directly to Robert Gordon University. This was to meet the training costs of additional NHS Grampian school nurses (recruited using Scottish Government funding) undertaking their Specialist Community Public Health Nursing (SCPHN) qualification.

The table below outlines the amount provided per financial year to the Health Board and to Robert Gordon University to support the respective staff and training costs resulting from the 2018 Programme for Government commitment.

Financial Year	Training costs	Staff costs
2024/25	£0	*unknown
2023/24	£95,594	£925,311
2022/23	£438,194	£808,220
2021/22	£153,394	£736,000
2020/21	£300,000	£730,069
2019/20	£320,000	£184,000
Total	£1,307,182.00	£3,383,600.00

*The Scottish Government’s school nursing funding arrangements changed in 2024/25. School Nurse funding for NHS Grampian was combined with a number of other mental health budgets. A new combined budget of £11,783,320 was allocated to NHS Grampian in 2024/25. This allowed NHS Grampian the flexibility to allocate the funding across school nursing and some mental health interventions in ways which best supported local circumstances. The Scottish Government does not therefore hold information on how much of the £11,783,320 was provided to the school nursing service for the financial year 2024/25.

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