Seòmar agus comataidhean

NHS boards are able to deploytheir overall revenue allocations to the best advantage of their local population.This includes any savings resulting from generic prescribing.

The Working Group on YoungRunaways has not met yet. The first meeting is scheduled for 25 June 2007.

Invitations have recentlyissued to the following organisations for membership of a proposed nationalworking group on young runaways:

Aberlour Child Care Trust

Association of Chief PoliceOfficers Scotland (ACPOS)

Association of Directors ofSocial Work (ADSW)

Association of Directors ofEducation in Scotland (ADES)

Barnardos

Convention of Scottish LocalAuthorities (Cosla)

The Scottish Coalition forYoung Runaways (Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Child Protection Office (ELBCPO)is the Coalition’s nominee)

Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration (SCRA)

Scottish Institute forResidential Child Care (SIRCC)

YouthLink Scotland.

A representativeorganisation for the Child Protection Committees is being identified, as is arepresentative for Parenting Across Scotland. Those representatives will beinvited shortly.

The Scottish Executive hasrecently provided additional funding of £536,300 (over 2007-09) to expand thecapacity of Glasgow and Aberdeen Centres and to set up a new base in Edinburgh.

The Executive has alsorecently invested in a freephone national telephone and information gatewayservice which directs the general public to local child protection serviceswhen they call to report concerns about a child or young person. This nationalgateway phone service is intended to complement existing phone-based childprotection counselling services.

The Executive continues tosupport ChildLine’s Anti-Bullying helpline and the enquire helpline (whichprovides advice and information on additional support for learning).

The Know the Score helplineand two other health-related helplines are run on behalf of the Executive bythe Department of Health. The Know the Score campaign, which includes thehelpline, provides drugs information and advice to young people.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran is responsiblefor service change proposals and for maintaining high quality healthcare servicesfor all residents of its area, within available resources. I have made clear thatwe will reverse the previous decision on accident and emergency services at Ayr Hospital, andI outlined in my statement to the Parliament on 6 June 2007 the steps needed togive effect to this commitment.

As I said, our aim is to ensurethat these steps are taken as quickly as possible, consistent with proper considerationand good decision making, and that other elements of service development proposedby the board also move ahead as quickly as possible. I am not aware of any currentproposals by the board to establish a community casualty facility within the threetowns area.

The Scottish Executivecommissioned the Scottish Centre for Research in Education to evaluate theimpact of the legislation. Their report, which was published in 2006, found noevidence that mainstreaming has a negative effect on pupil attainment and that,with proper preparation and support, inclusion is beneficial for all.

We are committed to ensuringthat all children receive the support they need in our schools and we will takewhat steps are necessary to ensure we achieve this. These steps includeconsideration of an inquiry into the operation and implementation ofmainstreaming policy.

As part of our manifesto commitmentto provide leadership in promoting the Curriculum for Excellence agenda, we willconsider how the future qualifications system should be structured to best meetthe needs of all Scottish students. This will include consideration of future arrangementsat SCQF levels 4 and 5 (Standard Grade Credit and General/Intermediate 1 and 2).

Our aim is to ensure that Scotland isan unattractive place for any organised crime gangs to do business. We haveworked with the UK Government on a number of measures including a joint ScottishExecutive and Home Office Action Plan on Human Trafficking. Law enforcementorganisations across the UK work together using an intelligence led approach toidentify emerging issues which are likely to impact on Scotland inthe future, including the accession of new member states to the European Union.Where intelligence indicates that a threat from organised crime exists the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency in support of the Scottish policeservice takes action to deal with it.

Specific resources madeavailable by the Executive to local authorities to safeguard young runawaysare:

a guidance pack which issuedto Child Protection Committees in July 2003 on vulnerable children and youngpeople which makes recommendations about the care of young runaways,

funding of £838,661 between2002 and 2008 from the Youth Crime Prevention Fund in support of Aberlour ChildCare Trust’s pilot project, Running Other Choices (ROC), which provides ashort-term refuge for young people aged 12 to 15, and

strengthened ChildProtection Committees as an outcome of the recently-concluded three-year ChildProtection Reform Programme which is improving multi-agency service provisionfor this (and other) vulnerable groups of children and young people.

More generally, localauthorities use their GAE provision to support local services as they see fit,and this includes the flexibility to commission or directly provide servicesfor young runaways on the basis of local need.

Yes.

ChildLine can currentlyrespond to about 60% of the calls it receives. Recent additional ScottishExecutive funding will allow ChildLine to expand its current services andincrease the response rate to around 80% for this financial year and beyond.