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Land at the Vale of Leven Hospital has been identified as appropriate for development not only for a 60 bed care of the elderly facility but also as the site of a new Primary Care Resource Centre. While NHS Argyll and Clyde are agreeable in principle to the sale of both sites there are aspects of the financial treatment of the sale proceeds of the resource centre site which are causing concern and which in turn impact upon and could delay the sale of the care of the elderly facility.

There is no intentional delay in the process. NHS Argyll and Clyde are currently reviewing the disposal route for the care of the elderly facility to ensure that the viability of this project is not prejudiced by valuation considerations and the financial treatment of the capital receipt. All parties to the transaction are currently engaged in discussions to determine the most appropriate means of disposing of the sites without prejudicing either of the projects. The care of the elderly site project is at a very early stage ofdevelopment and although no formal public consultation has been undertaken the local community Care and Carers Forum have been kept fully involved in the proposal.

Officials from my department have recently been in touch with officials from Argyll and Clyde and they will continue to assist all parties to ensure that no undue delay is incurred.

The final report of the Tolled Bridges Review will be published following its consideration by ministers in late summer 2005.

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.

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.

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.

We note the UK Government’s report with interest. It has no specific recommendations for action by the Scottish Executive. We are continuing to pursue a range of activities to support disabled people and, where appropriate, to work with the UK Government.

Although the Scottish Executive has published guidance on School Estate Management Plans as part of the series of School Estate Strategy publications, it remains the statutory responsibility of education authorities to assess the needs and prioritise competing demands for investment in their school estates.

The Executive is promoting uptake of direct payments in a range of ways, including extending to include older people with effect from April 2005. While there are no performance indicators in place to monitor the promotion of direct payments by local authorities at present, consideration is being given to using performance indicators to monitor future uptake.

The information sought is contained in the following table:

Direct Payments Recipients and Value of Payments, Year to 31 March 2004

	Aged 0-15 Years			All
	No. of Clients	Value of Payments (£000)	Average Value (£000)	No. of Clients	Value of Payments (£000)	Average Value (£000)
Scotland	19	73	3.8	912	8,338	9.1

Source: SEHD annual survey ofdirect payments.

Training on the range of issues which arise in the prosecution of cases involving domestic abuse forms part of the core induction which is undertaken by all new prosecutors. This training, which includes input from Scottish Women’s Aid, is designed to equip prosecutors with a sound knowledge of the particular legal issues which arise frequently in these prosecutions as well as an awareness and understanding of the wider issues about victims experiencing domestic abuse in Scotland.

We are also currently working with Scottish Women’s Aid to develop advanced training for all staff within the prosecution service who work with victims and witnesses experiencing domestic abuse. This will build on the core training course to ensure that staff develop a high degree of proficiency in the preparation and prosecution of such cases