To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is regarding the reduction in mental health services in some local authorities.
Local authorities and NHS boards have responsibility to work in partnership and allocate resources on the basis of local needs and priorities, within the context of the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and commitments.
The concordat and single outcome agreements (SOAs) are designed to greatly enhance local decision-making and funding in all service areas “ including mental health - based on the profiling of those needs and priorities within each local authority, and informed by local knowledge and experience.
While we do not formally monitor the effects of the introduction of SOAs on specific services, work being undertaken on social care mental health benchmarking will give a clearer benchmark and more comparative information about activity, investment and, in time, outcomes.
All local authorities have submitted their 2008-09 SOA annual report to the Scottish Government, and to their local communities. The Scottish Government intends to publish an overview commentary shortly, which will pick up key messages emerging from the reports. We also offer support and advice to enable local authorities and other partners to consider the strategic priorities across the range of community care areas to inform use of resources and service redesign, in order to improve outcomes for people who use services, and their carers
We have also commissioned research on how the third sector is responding to the new opportunities and challenges arising from their new relationship with the public sector. This research was commissioned with the engagement of the third sector and public sector partners and will focus on a number of third sector organisations, the names of which should be published early next year.