Seòmar agus comataidhean

The billing and collection arrangements between Scottish Water and the local authorities are currently governed by The Water Services Charges (Billing and Collection) (Scotland) Order 2006. Section 5 of this Order sets out that Scottish Water has individual arrangements (Service Level Agreements) with each local authority. The fee per authority varies in accordance with the specific arrangements within each Service Level Agreement. The average fee per property paid in 2008-09 was £5.85.

From 1 April 2010, The Water Services Charges (Billing and Collection) (Scotland) Order 2010 sets out similar arrangements and can be viewed at:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/ssi2010/ssi_20100010_en_1.

Our investment of an additional £5.5 million more per year in CAMHS by 2011-12 is to increase capacity in the CAMHS workforce to ensure implementation of the CAMHS Framework. We expect this significant investment to lead to an increase in the CAMHS workforce of about 15% to 20% by that date.

The £5.5 million is made up of two elements, £3.5 million to increase the number of psychologists and £2 million to enhance the intensive community services and reduce the need for children and young people to be admitted to hospital.

We are allocating £6.5 million in total over the next three years to increase the number of psychologists working in specialist CAMHS with £1 million in 2009-10, £2 million in 2010-11 and rising to the £3.5 million referred to above in 2011-12

In addition to recruiting new psychology staff, the resources will fund 10 additional training places for Doctoral Clinical Psychology on the September 2009 intake and again in 2010 and 2011 on top of the already agreed intake numbers. The resources will also fund an additional five training places on the February 2010, 2011 and 2012 intakes for the Masters level psychologist programme: Applied Psychology for Children and Young People. By 2011-12, we expect to have around an additional 60 CAMHS specialist clinical psychologists or trainees and an additional 45-50 masters level applied psychologists in the workforce.

We are also making available £2 million each year, to be matched by NHS boards, to enhance the intensive community services and reduce the need for children and young people to be admitted to hospital. In the North of Scotland, where consideration is still ongoing around the need to increase the number of inpatient beds, the money is to be used to support this process, as well as the development of intensive community services. In the east and west regions, the money is being targeted at increasing workforce and the development of intensive community services.

Whilst each of the regional proposals we are funding are different, all have similar focus and aims and will benefit children and young people with severe mental health problems by improving their access to community support and thus reduce the need for hospital admissions. 

Specific funding is being made available to health boards to meet the costs of the reductions of prescription charges for the duration of the current spending review period (2008-09 to 2010-11) including £32 million for 2010-11. Whilst we will clearly maintain support for the policy thereafter, decisions regarding specific funding after financial year 2010-11 will be considered as part of the forthcoming spending review.

The Scottish Government''s policy on water and sewerage charges for the 2010-15 period was set out in its Principles of Charging statement which was published on 27 October 2009. We will review its effectiveness during that time and consider whether further steps should be taken for the next regulatory period.

For further information on the Principles of Charging, I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30648 on 26 January 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

At 31 March 2009, the numbers were as follows:

	Water & Waste Water	Water Only	Waste Water Only
Band A*	1,171	21	5	1,197
Band A	544,207	8,536	1,881	554,624
Band B	567,710	10,596	1,582	579,888
Band C	361,449	14,663	1,117	377,229
Band D	284,473	16,913	991	302,337
Band E	284,186	20,778	715	305,679
Band F	152,567	13,614	367	166,548
Band G	92,197	11,999	280	104,476
Band H	8,736	1,724	113	10,573
	2,296,696	98,844	7,051	2,402,591

 

As set out in the previous response, Scottish Water can write off debt and does so in accordance with the debt write off policies of local authorities. Generally, the reasons for debts being written off are: householders being untraceable; sequestrated; deceased with insufficient finds in their estate, or the amount is so small that it is uneconomic to pursue it. The management and decision making of these matters rests with local authorities as part of the billing, collection and recovery arrangements.

The summary of responses from NHS boards on IVF treatment will be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) (Bib. number 49114).

I refer the member to the answer to question to S3W-31323 on 25 February 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31346 on 24 February 2010. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

A single improvement and scrutiny body for social work and social care services, including child protection and the integration of children''s services, Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) will be established from April 2011.

SCSWIS will analyse evidence and other information from inspections, registration, complaints, investigations and other professional intelligence and report on the quality of services, how risks can be minimised, problems addressed and continuous improvement achieved. On the basis of performance evidence SCSWIS will move away from cyclical scrutiny programmes towards shared, risk-based, proportionate programmes.

The creation of SCSWIS will build on the good work of existing scrutiny bodies for the sector and over time, will allow people who use services, their carers and the wider public to see and experience further significant improvement in the quality of their services.