Seòmar agus comataidhean

<>I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12799 on 04 March 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy (MESAS) is a programme of work to evaluate the key components of the Scottish Government alcohol strategy. It is led by NHS Health Scotland in collaboration with NHS National Services Scotland Information Services Division. The programme is delivered through a portfolio of commissioned and in-house evaluation studies which has the overall aim of assessing the extent to which the strategy contributed to reducing alcohol-related harms in Scotland.

As set out in Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy 2nd Annual Report:http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/6182.aspx, which was published in December 2012, Scotland has seen recent improvements in levels of alcohol-related harm. However, as the report makes clear, alcohol-related harm must be viewed in a historical perspective and it is clear that harm remains at unacceptably high levels: alcohol-related deaths double and hospital discharges quadruple the levels of the early 1980s.

Scotland’s alcohol strategy continues to evolve and be implemented so it is not appropriate to set a single baseline year. The NHS Health Scotland MESAS first (baseline) and second annual reports make clear that a long term perspective on the overall impact of the strategy is needed, and that premature assessments of trends in consumption and harm based on a few years of data should be avoided.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on the alcohol intake of people following a Keep Well check.

It is up to individual boards to decide what data to collect locally, which helps them in planning their local service needs.

As part of the Keep Well health check, individuals are assessed for their alcohol consumption and where appropriate individuals are referred to alcohol services for further support.

Keep Well is an anticipatory care programme that contributes to tackling health inequalities by targeting cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in the most deprived areas of Scotland.

NHS Health Scotland manages the mainstreaming of the Keep Well programme through a co-ordinated framework of activity which helps to ensure that territorial NHS boards remain committed to Keep Well and the sharing of best practice. It has also helped implement guidance for engaging with the Keep Well core target population based on learning from earlier implementation of Keep Well. NHS boards are required to produce an annual report on their Keep Well activity.

Over 180,000 Keep Well health checks have been delivered across Scotland so far (between March 2009 and end June 2012).

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing the gap in health inequalities between deprived and affluent areas, and has committed provides funding of £11.3 million per annum over 2012-2015 for the delivery and implementation of Keep Well.

<>The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, which was published in January 2010, can be found on the Scottish Government’s website via the following link http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/29122804/0. This is the most recent publication estimating the annual cost of alcohol misuse in Scotland and uses a cost of illness approach. The study includes estimates of the relevant direct, indirect and intangible costs associated with alcohol misuse, and covers the following categories: health care, social care, crime, productive capacity of the Scottish economy, wider social costs.

The total cost of crime in Scotland for 2007 is estimated to be in the range of £114.2 million to £346.8 million annually with a midpoint estimate of £230.5 million.

Section 7 in the study provides further detail on the costs of crime.

The following table shows the estimated numbers of households in Scotland affected by housing benefit changes which have been implemented by the United Kingdom Government to date and those which are scheduled to be implemented from April 2013.

Assessments of the possible impacts of these changes are published on the Scottish Government website at:

Impact of Housing Benefit Changes in Scotland

Housing Benefit Change	Implementation date	Estimated number of households affected1
Changes to local housing allowance rates for tenants in private rented sector. - Removing £15 excess. - Restriction to 4 bedroom rate. - Capping LHA rates by bedroom size. - Basing LHA rates on 30th percentile rent.	Phased in from 1 April 2011	55,000
Local housing allowance rate for single people without dependants aged 25 – 34 restricted to the rate for a room with shared facilities.	Phased in from 1 April 2011	4,400
Under occupation penalty for working age households in local authority or housing association housing. - penalty of 14% of rent for those assessed as under occupying by 1 room. - penalty of 25% of rent for those assessed as under occupying by 2 or more rooms.	From 1 April 2013	105,000
Overall cap on benefits, which will initially be implemented through a reduction in housing benefit.	To be phased in from 1 April 2013	4,600

Uprating local housing allowance rates by the lower of consumer price index or actual increase in the 30th percentile rate. April 2011 Restricting the uprating of local housing allowance rates to a maximum of 1% per year for two years from 2014-15. April 2014

79,0002

Uprating non-dependant deductions to reflect increases in rent since 2001-02.	April 2011	No estimate available.
Changes to non-dependant deduction rates under Universal Credit.	Phased in from autumn 2013.	No estimate available.

Notes:

1. Since some households may have been affected by more than one of the changes it is not possible to provide an estimate of the total number of households affected.

2. Figure shows the total number of households receiving local housing allowance at the latest available date. The effect on households will depend on whether private landlords continue to rent to households on housing benefit at LHA rates restricted in this way.

Over the period from 2010 to the present date, the Scottish Government has sought concessions to the UK Government’s housing benefit reforms on numerous occasions since DWP first announced its welfare reforms. These are that:

Responsibility for housing benefit be devolved to the Scottish Parliament

The proposal to reduce housing benefit for benefit recipients unemployed for twelve months or more be withdrawn

The regulations on under-occupation deductions be withdrawn

Under-occupation deductions should not apply where there is no alternative accommodation available

Under-occupation deductions apply only to benefit recipients with two or more spare bedrooms

Vulnerable tenants be safeguarded against direct payments

Working families, disabled people, foster carers and parents who shared responsibility for children be safeguarded from under occupation penalties

The flexibility afforded to the Northern Ireland Assembly on direct payments be extended to the Scottish Parliament

People living in supported exempt accommodation be exempt from the benefits cap

The UK Government increases its discretionary housing payments allocation to local authorities.

Over the same period, DWP withdrew the proposal to reduce housing benefit for benefit recipients unemployed for twelve months or more; and decided to maintain current arrangements for covering the housing costs of benefit recipients in supported exempt accommodation for the next one to two years.

In respect of direct payments, DWP has committed to provide budgeting support and make payment exceptions to a proportion of tenants. It has funded six direct payment demonstration projects to inform practice on direct payments. We are closely monitoring progress in this area.

Although DWP has increased the discretionary housing payment (DHPs) budget, this constitutes less than 4% of the overall cuts to housing benefit. In respect of under-occupation, DWP intends that local authorities prioritise DHPs to people living in substantially adapted accommodation and foster/kinship carers.

The Scottish Government and Scottish housing stakeholders continue to engage with DWP to seek to influence the UK Government’s welfare reforms.

This information is not held centrally. NHS boards and local authorities are responsible for ensuring that advocacy is available to all who need it within their respective areas and that resources are matched to meet these needs.

The Scottish Independent Advocacy Service has produced a Map of Advocacy and this is available at:

http://www.siaa.org.uk/images/stories/SIAA_AdvocacyMap_2011_2012.pdf.

The Children (Scotland) Act 1995, and accompanying Regulations and Guidance, set the eligibility criteria and assessment process in relation to disabled children and young people; including sharing of information, joint assessments and collaboration with both statutory and voluntary agencies. Each local authority will have their own defined standards for the delivery of these services, set within the context of local priorities to fulfil their statutory obligations.

Sections 23 and 24 of the Act relate specifically to the assessment of disabled children and their carers.

Subsequent legislation including the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act (1996) and the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 placed further duties on local authorities when carrying out assessments.

Education authorities have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act to provide identify, make and review provision for children and young people for additional support needs, including those children who have a disability. In addition, specific provisions are in place for children who are identified and are brought to the attention of the education authority as having a disability from 0- 3 years of age. In these circumstances education authorities have a duty to provide additional support. The Code of Practice for Additional Support for Learning provides guidance to education authorities and partners on this provision and the assessment of children’s and young people’s additional support needs.

This information is not held centrally. While Scottish Government does not collect consolidated statistics for services provided to disabled children and young people by local authority, figures are available for disabled children and young people in a number of areas. These include:

Statistics	Descriptor	Link
Respite weeks	Collected annually by Audit Scotland – local authority – number of respite weeks offered for day and overnight service	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/10/24145257/10
Scottish Household Survey	Household members with a long-standing illness, health problem or disability (0-15 years)	http://scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/08/17093111/22
Scottish Health Survey	Proportion of children (0-15 years) with limiting and non-limiting long standing conditions	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/scottish-health-survey/Publications#a1
Pre-school education statistics	Number of children registered with local authority or partnership pre-school providers assessed as having Additional Support Needs or with a Coordinated Support Plan	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubPreSchoolEdChildcare
Pupil Census (included in Summary Statistics for Schools)	Number of pupils attending either a mainstream or special school with ‘additional support needs’.	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/PubPupilCensus
Looked After Children statistics	Number of children looked after by local authorities by disability status	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/02/23091516
Annual Population Survey (Local Area Labour Markets in Scotland)	Employment/unemployment/inactivity rate for people with a disability aged 16-64	http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/08/10094809
The Support Needs System	Number of children assessed on SNS, type of impairment, service availability.	http://www.isdscotlandarchive.scot.nhs.uk/isd/3397.html
The Department of Work and Pensions	Number of children aged 5-17 entitled to Disability Living Allowance	http://83.244.183.180/100pc/tabtool.html