- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how discharge planning is monitored for older people leaving acute services, as referred to in Older People in Acute Care National Overview - February 2004.
Answer
Discharge arrangements aremonitored by NHS boards in conjunction with their local authority partners.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding has been put in place to meet the increasing number of persons with HIV in care, in light of figures recording the highest annual number of new cases of HIV since the mid-1980s, as referred to in issue 172 of the Scottish Drugs Forum Bulletin.
Answer
Following the publication of the report of the HIV Health Promotion Strategy Review Group in January 2001,the Executive increased the resources available to NHS boards by £2 million annually,to assist their work to prevent the spread of HIV and other bloodborne viruses.The allocation in 2003-04 is £8.12 million. Boards use these resources to fundmeasures to address a range of issues relating to HIV in their areas.
Expenditure on treatment andcare services for those suffering from HIV is a matter for individual boards todetermine within their general funding allocations, which increased by aminimum of 7.4% across boards in 2003-04.
Local authorities also havea key role in supporting those suffering from HIV. Substantial additionalresources for community care have been allocated in the local governmentfinance settlement to 2005-06.
The Executive also providessome £500,000 to a range of voluntary organisations responding to thechallenges posed by bloodborne viruses, particularly HIV and hepatitis C.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to section 12AA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 as amended by the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, whether there is a target in respect of the time it takes a local authority to conduct an assessment of a carer's support needs.
Answer
The Executive has not set atarget in respect of the time it should take to conduct an assessment of acarers’ support needs. I refer the member to the answer given to questionS2W-6151 on 17 March 2004 which sets out the Executive’s position on monitoringcarers’ assessments.
All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time has been for a local authority to assess an application made by a carer under section 12AA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 as amended by the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 in (a) 2002-03 and (b) 2003-04 to date.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6151 on 17 March 2004.All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the parliamentwebsite, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to section 12AA of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 as amended by the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, how many assessments of carers for accessing services were conducted by local authorities in (a) 2002-03 and (b) 2003-04 to date.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6151 on 17 March 2004 All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the parliament website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2941 by Tavish Scott on 9 October 2003 and to section 4, page 46 of A Partnership for a Better Scotland regarding an independent review of local government finance, whether the discussions with COSLA have been concluded; if so, what the timing, remit and format of the review will be and when the conclusions will be published, and, if not, when such discussions will be concluded.
Answer
We are working with COSLA onthis and giving further consideration to the detailed scope and remit of thereview, including when the review should report its conclusions. I expect toannounce more details in the near future.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, what steps will be taken to introduce (a) dedicated educational assessments and support for looked after children, (b) prioritised mental health services for looked after children and (c) guidelines on the production, and use, of clear confidentiality agreements for each individual within the care system.
Answer
Volume 2 of the guidance onthe Children (Scotland) Act 1995 states that the care plan should set outthe educational and wider developmental needs of the child being looked after.Local authorities should provide educational and developmental opportunitiesand support and promote potential and achievement.
The Scottish Executive is currently working with its expert advisory Child Health Support Group to secure improvement in children and young people’smental health and in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) services,through implementation of the Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) Reporton Child and Adolescent Mental Health, published last year. It isanticipated that this work will improve the capacity of specialist CAMHservices to provide a more effective service for looked after children andyoung people. A key element is the development of a “template” which will describethe essential elements of a comprehensive CAMH service. It will includeservices for vulnerable children and young people, such as those who are lookedafter, and is expected to be published in the autumn of 2004. However, decisionsabout local health service provision are ultimately a matter for each NHS board.
The Scottish Executive published a revised NHS Code of Practice on Protecting PatientConfidentiality in July 2003 and issued guidance in August on The Use ofPersonal Health Information in NHSScotland to Support Patient Care. Guidance onsharing information and confidentiality is also provided in Getting ourPriorities Right, published in February 2003.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, what steps will be taken to introduce guidelines for good practice between care staff and GP surgeries to (a) create closer working links between residential care staff and staff at the local GP surgery, (b) ensure full registration of young people with the allied GP surgery by 12 weeks into placement, (c) guarantee closer working links between allied GP surgeries and the Practitioner Services Division for the central collation and fast tracking of GP notes and (d) create closer working links between allied GP surgeries and community child health departments, in particular with the nurse for looked after children.
Answer
Volume 2 of the guidance onThe Children (Scotland) Act 1995 states that children must be registeredwith a GP and dental practioner once they become looked after. As part of theircare planning local authorities will want to ensure that they are closelyinvolved with the GP surgery and that the health needs of the child are beingmet.
The PARTNERS programme, which has been rolled out tovirtually all GP practices in Scotland, allows faster and more accurate registration ofpatients with GP practices. Patient records are currently transferred betweenGP practices via the Common Services Agency and fast track arrangements are inplace where records are required urgently. Work is ongoing to develop andimplement programmes to link GP practices and the Practitioner ServicesDivision electronically, in order to support the electronic exchange ofrecords.
The Scottish Executive has no current plans to introduce specific good practice guidance to createcloser working links between allied GP surgeries and community healthdepartments. However, draft statutory guidance was published on 8th March forconsultation on the establishment of Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) underthe NHS Reform (Scotland) Bill. NHS boards will be expected to discuss andagree with local authority and other stakeholders the services which each CHPwill manage and/or co-ordinate. However, the draft statutory guidance statesthat CHPs should directly manage and provide, or have a lead role inco-ordinating, influencing or directing the delivery of services to supportvulnerable groups of children and young children including those looked afterby the local authority. The statutory guidance will be finalised once the NHS Reform(Scotland) Bill is enacted.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, whether the specific needs of looked after children and young people in care will be considered in the preparation of the sexual health strategy.
Answer
The draft Sexual Health andRelationships Strategy which has been the subject of an extensive consultationprocess specifically draws attention to the needs of children who are lookedafter, including the importance of sexual relationships education, access toservices, and adequate training for those who care for them. The views receivedfrom the consultation in this respect will be reflected in the final strategy.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-5973 and S2W-5975 by Ms Margaret Curran on 1 March 2004, what steps will be taken in the short term to ensure that homeless people in East Lothian receive adequate services whilst East Lothian Council produces its improvement plan and during implementation of the plan once approved by Communities Scotland.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is asfollows:
Scottish Ministers actingthrough Communities Scotland now require East Lothian Council to take action toensure that homeless people in its area receive adequate services. The council’simprovement plan, setting out how it will respond to the findings of thePathfinder Inspection Report is due to be submitted on 17 March 2004.
Communities Scotlandexpects this to contain immediate, short term and longer term actions toprogress improvements. The agency will then agree arrangements with the localauthority for monitoring the implementation of the plan to ensure that thenecessary improvements in the services for homeless people and those threatenedwith homelessness are achieved. Performance in this area will be reassessedwithin two years and a full re-inspection of the local authority will becarried out within five years.
