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The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) is responsible for determining the entitlement of all individuals to national qualifications. SQA provides a range of advice to enable centres, pupils and their families to gain an understanding of the alternative or accessible formats that can be made available to those taking National Qualifications examinations. These alternative formats include the provision of question papers in braille, large print and digital media. Centres, pupils and their families can obtain information about alternative formats available through SQA''s website or by telephoning their customer contact centre.

The Scottish Government funds the CALL Centre (Communication Aids for Language and Learning), University of Edinburgh, which provides specialist advice, expertise and training in technology for those working with children who have speech, communication and/or writing difficulties in schools across Scotland. CALL were funded to organise a national symposium in Edinburgh in March 2008 where key stakeholders considered how digital versions of curriculum resources can be created and accessed by pupils with additional support needs.

CALL are currently working with Learning and Teaching Scotland to produce an on line database of adapted curriculum materials. This is an output of work with the Copyright Licensing Agency to extend the schools copyright licence so that it covers not only pupils with visual impairments but those who are registered disabled. CALL has also been funded to produce a resource that enables pupils to listen to digital curriculum materials spoken out in a Scottish voice. The voice can be downloaded free of charge from the CALL website. It has also been recently agreed to fund CALL to develop an accessibility guide for textual resources and they have also been working to create and develop examination papers in accessible digital formats with SQA.

In partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland, we have made available to all schools a web-based catalogue of adapted curriculum materials.

the Vale of Leven hospital employed 720.3 staff whole-time equivalent (WTE).

the largest staff group at the Vale of Leven Hospital is nursing and midwifery staff (47% of WTE staff or 337.4 WTE), followed by support services staff (15% of WTE staff or 108.3 WTE), and administrative services staff (15% of staff or 104.8 WTE)

Table 1: Staff Numbers, by Job Family, Vale of Leven Hospital, October 2008

Source: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services they need from the NHS. We will continue to look at other services which can be brought within the waiting time targets. Meantime we are supporting the NHS in Scotland to improve access to services not presently covered by such targets.

The Delivery Framework for Adult Rehabilitation specifically addresses improving all access to allied health professions services for adults through a single point of contact. This is being trialled through the NHS 24 triage and referral management pilot.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places duties on education authorities and NHS boards, which includes allied health professionals, to work in partnership, to ensure all children with additional support needs have access to the necessary support to help them meet their individual needs and improve educational outcomes.

The charging rules aim to ensure that people receiving services are only asked to contribute what is reasonable for them to pay towards the costs, taking account of their resources and other financial responsibilities.

COSLA guidance to local authorities on charging for non-residential services encourages them to take account of the possible financial impact on spouses, and dependents, when setting reasonable charges for the individual receiving services.

With regards to residential services, the rule that allowed local authorities to seek a contribution from the spouse or parent of a care home resident, the liable relative rule, was repealed in October 2007. Under the care home charging rules, local authorities have discretion to disregard the value of a property, under certain circumstances, if a former carer continues to live there.

Through the continuing professional development (CPD) framework, the Scottish Government fully expects all teachers to be able to recognise and know how to support pupils with additional support needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Additionally, a national CPD team is in place to support a network of local authority CPD co-ordinators to help share best practice. The team has particular expertise in additional support needs.

Following talks with the Scottish Government, the General Teaching Council for Scotland has now added five new areas to their professional recognition framework, one of which is Additional Support Needs - Autism.

The Scottish Government is also undertaking a number of other initiatives to help ensure that trainee teachers, qualified teachers and support staff receive the necessary training to ensure that they have the necessary knowledge and confidence to work with all children, including those with ASD. For example:

The Scottish Teacher Education Committee (STEC) Action Plan “ Framework for Inclusion, a two year action plan to take forward inclusive education in Initial Teacher Education and Continuous Professional Development.

The Scottish Government will soon publish The Autism Toolbox, an autism resource for Scottish local authorities and schools. The toolbox will draw on a range of practice experience, literature and research to support education authorities, and school staff to develop innovative and individualised approaches to teaching pupils with ASD.

Officials have advised Mindroom that they would welcome further discussions with them as their business proposals develop.

Health for All Children (Hall 4) guidance was issued in 2005 and introduced a core programme of screening, surveillance and health promotion activity for every child. The universal core programme of contacts forms the basis of a holistic assessment enabling health professionals to identify the nature of any additional support required on the basis of need.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places duties on education authorities to ensure that the additional support needs of all children and young people are addressed. Education authorities are required to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of all pupils.

Through the continuing professional development (CPD) framework, the Scottish Government fully expects all teachers to be able to recognise and know how to support pupils with additional support needs. Teachers should know where to go for specialist support and advice with regard to the educational provision for pupils to ensure that the appropriate assessments, interventions and strategies can be put in place. There is no single best approach.

Later this year the Scottish Government will publish an early years framework in partnership with COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities). Within the context of the concordat it will be for local authorities and their community planning partners to deliver the outcome that our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. It will also highlight the need for high quality pre-school and early school education provision and support.

We are developing The Early Years Framework with COSLA, which is about moving from intervention when a crisis happens towards prevention, building resilience and providing the right level of support before problems materialise. The framework will also highlight the need for high quality pre-school and early education provision and support. We are looking to publish the Early Years Framework later this year.

We are supporting the Scottish Teacher Education Committee (STEC) Action Plan “ Framework for Inclusion, a two year action plan to take forward inclusive education in Initial Teacher Education and Continuous Professional Development.

We are currently in discussions with Dyslexia Scotland to undertake work to identify and provide advice on the most effective assessment tools/techniques that would help teachers plan appropriate programmes of support for the learner.

We launched and disseminated last year, the Scottish Government funded University of Edinburgh interactive training DVD to promote dyslexia awareness in secondary schools and help facilitate the transition from primary to secondary school.

Curriculum for Excellence identifies literacy skills as a key theme across the curriculum with all teachers having a role in promoting language and literacy development; it also puts the learner at the heart of everything that we do.

Finally, I would be happy to meet with Ms Baillie to discuss this issue in more detail.