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Progress on implementing good practice on staff issues relating to disability will be made through the Staff Governance Standard which I launched on 25 January at the Scottish Partnership Forum Conference. The Standard requires NHS employers to ensure Partnership Information Network guidelines such as the Equal Opportunities Guideline which includes disability are implemented and progressed. In addition, a self assessment audit on the implementation of "Learning Together", the Strategy for Education and Lifelong Learning for NHSScotland staff to ensure all staff are appropriately trained, will be undertaken by the local partnership forum.

We have set up a dedicated team to implement single shared assessment for older people in the first instance and a reference group to advise it. More directly, we issued guidance in setting out the key steps to implementation and the essential infrastructures we expect to be in place by 1 April 2002. And to promote and support implementation locally, we held regional seminars and are currently visiting every local authority area. Single shared assessment will be extended to the rest of community care in the course of 2002-03.

A Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland, published in 2001, requires NHS Boards to provide parent education programmes and support to parents as part of their maternity strategies. The Scottish Executive is currently conducting an audit of these strategies against the principles laid out in the framework. The Health Education Board for Scotland, the Scottish Executive Health Department and the Royal College of Midwives held a stakeholder event in November 2001 to review approaches to antenatal and parent education with midwives, health visitors and parents. A follow up event is planned in March.

Cancer in Scotland: Action for Change was published in July 2001. The Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland was issued in September 1997 and has subsequently been updated. The Executive established a CHD/Stroke Task Force which reported in September 2001. Following consultation, which is now complete, the strategy for Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke is expected to be ready for publication this spring.

The commitment to establish an Information Task Group was reaffirmed in Cancer in Scotland: Action for Change launched in July last year. The group has now been set up and met for the first time on 23 January 2002.Mr Ian Gibson, Director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, Macmillan Cancer Relief and a member of the Scottish Cancer Group, is chairman of the group. Its membership also includes patient, voluntary sector and regional cancer clinical network representatives from a variety of professions and disciplines. The group will report to the Scottish Cancer Group.

I launched the Staff Governance Standard on 25 January at the Scottish Partnership Conference. A copy of the Standard is available on the Health Department website.

The promised planning and audit document was published on 12 February 2001 and sent to all relevant agencies. A copy is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 12345).

We are currently seeking this information from NHS trusts and will reply to the member as soon as possible.

An expert group, led by NHS Chief Executive Trevor Jones, has been looking in detail at delayed discharge and the reasons for it. Next month I will announce an Action Plan based on the work of this group, and including the sharing of good practice, to help drive down the delayed discharge figures.

Strategies for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis are primarily a matter for NHS Boards. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), which is funded by the Scottish Executive Health Department, produced a clinical guideline on the Management of Early Rheumatoid Arthritis in December 2000, which will have informed clinicians of the best practice for diagnosis and management of the condition.