What action it plans to take to ensure the adequate provision of social workers for the city of Edinburgh.

The shortage of social care staff is being addressed on a national basis. We have taken a number of initiatives including a national recruitment campaign, unprecedented investment in social work education, a fast-track scheme for graduates and an incentive scheme to attract qualified staff to hard to fill posts.
There are more qualified social workers in Scotland now than atany time in the past and this year we have seen an increase in applications forundergraduate programmes of 26%. However, demand for social workers remainshigh, especially in the cities. We are committed to providing sustained helpand recently, for example, I confirmed that the fast track recruitment ofsocial workers will be sustained for five years.
The Minister for Education and Young People has announced a fundamental review of social work across Scotland and he will provide more detail about that before the summer recess. The key aim of the review is to enhance the contribution of social work services.