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The current tolling order for Erskine Bridge will expire on 1 July 2006. Anyproposal to extend the tolling period, under powers in section 4(3) of the ErskineBridge Tolls Act 1968, would be effected by Statutory Instrument, subject to affirmative resolution in the Parliament.

Under the Executive’s Carers Strategy £10 million a year was made available across Scotland from April 2000 onwards, specifically to expand local services supporting unpaid carers. This investment was further enhanced in April 2001 when authorities were given additional resources for respite care, a key service for carers and the people they care for. This provided an additional £5 million in 2001-02, £6 million in 2002-03 and £11 million in 2003-04. These resources are being maintained in real terms over the period 2004-08, thereby securing this unprecedented growth in service provision for carers.

The resources are distributed to local authorities as part of the normal Grant Aided Expenditure distribution arrangements. The table adds together the resources made available through these arrangements to Argyll and Bute Council and West Dunbartonshire Council under the Strategy and to deliver additional respite. They are only a small component of the total resources that authorities have access to for the provision of social care; authorities’ expenditure over a wide range of services is also helping to benefit carers.

Local Authority	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Bute	204	307	324	425	430
West Dunbartonshire	183	278	296	392	423

 

A short life Working Group on direct payments for older people was set up in May 2004 to consider and overcome barriers to take up and to assist with updating the Direct Payments Guidance. The group membership is wide ranging including representatives of service users, local support organisations and local authorities.

The draft guidance will shortly go out for public consultation for implementation in July 2005. It will highlight best practice to further develop local user-led support organisations. From 2006 onwards, additional Government Allocated Expenditure (GAE) will be targeted at promoting local user-led support organisations.

Beyond March 2005, further subgroups will be set up to focus on the needs of particular care groups such as those with mental health problems. User representatives will be invited on all subsequent groups of this type.

The Scottish Executive is committed to developing direct payments as a way of giving service users choice and control over the care services they receive. From April 2005, direct payments will be available to the first non disabled client group, those people aged 65 and over who are assessed as needing care services. It is also anticipated that concentrated effort will be made to increase uptake among current eligible groups such as disabled children, mental health service and learning disabled users from April 2005 onwards.

I refer the member to S2W-14085, answered on 28 February 2005, 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/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive Direct Payments Policy and Practice Guidance document published in June 2003 gives advice on the provision of direct payments. It is anticipated that this will be updated and re-issued by summer 2005.

No additional funds have been made available to local authorities for the period up until 2006 as direct payments are made in lieu of services which a local authority would normally provide itself. From 2006-7, £1.8 million, and for 2007 onwards £2 million will be made available to local authorities to increase uptake through targeted support such as additional training.

Details of the local government finance settlement to 2007‑08 are available from the following link, where the additional provision has gone into the GAE line in tables 2 and 3 for Services for People with disabilities http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/publications/bulletin/hd150.pdf.

The Executive is in the process of ensuring that direct payments take up is evaluated through the Joint Performance Information and Assessment Framework. When further direct payments subgroups are set up, service users will be involved in reviewing how this system of monitoring is being implemented in practice.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-14090, on 28 February 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

The National Park Authority expects to launch its draft National Park Plan for consultation on 16 May 2005. Following consultation, the draft plan will be submitted to Scottish ministers for approval.

Local authority Grant Aided Expenditure, including for community care for older people, is published on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/gaestats.

Grant Aided Expenditure is funded by a combination of centrally provided government funding through Aggregate External Finance and funding raised by local authorities through locally raised council tax revenue. Local authorities are free to spend above or below the Grant Aided Expenditure level, according to their own priorities. The money that local authorities receive through Aggregate External Finance is, in the main, provided by way of a block grant and is not allocated to specific services.

Grant Aided Expenditure is allocated to individual local authorities on the basis of a needs-based distribution formula agreed with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

General funding allocations to NHS boards of £6.01 billion for 2005-06 were detailed in written answer S2W-14069 on 4 February 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search. It is for boards to decide how best to utilise these funds to meet the health care needs of their resident populations, including services for older people, taking account of national and local priorities.

£29.5 million was allocated to NHS boards in 2004-05 for local authority/NHS Partnerships specifically to tackle the problems of delayed discharges in Scotland. These funds were distributed as follows:

NHS Board	£000
Argyll and Clyde	2,553
Ayrshire and Arran	2,292
Borders	665
Dumfries and Galloway	957
Fife	1,982
Forth Valley	1,559
Grampian	2,679
Greater Glasgow	5,455
Highland	1,367
Lanarkshire	3,152
Lothian	3,986
Orkney	124
Shetland	134
Tayside	2,361
Western Isles	234
Total	29,500

 

Similar delayed discharge allocations for 2005-06 have yet to be announced.