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The Scottish Government consultation Affordable Rented Housing: creating flexibility for landlords and better outcomes for communities suggested 10 proposals for legislative change. Four of these proposals would give social landlords (local authorities and Registered Social Landlords) greater flexibility around allocations, tenancies and evictions and help deal with antisocial behaviour by their tenants. Any changes to be taken forward will form part of a Housing Bill. The consultation closed on 30 April 2012 and the paper can be accessed online at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/02/9972/0.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the development of a strategy aimed at growing and improving standards within the Scottish private rented sector. As part of this, the Scottish Government is seeking views on how problem tenants living within privately rented properties can be more effectively dealt with to help both neighbours and landlords. The consultation runs until 10 July 2012 and can be accessed online at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00391609.pdf.

In March 2009 the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly published their Framework for tackling antisocial behaviour, Promoting Positive Outcomes. It followed a thorough review of national antisocial behaviour policy, recognising that prevention; early and effective intervention; and diversion, should be at its heart.

There is a range of tools available to local authorities and other partners to tackle antisocial behaviour across a range of tenures and the extent to which they are used and in what circumstances is an operational matter for those local authorities and other partners. Guidance on the use of tools to tackle antisocial behaviour can be found on the Scottish Government’s website at www.scotland.gov.uk.

The Scottish Government consultation Affordable Rented Housing: creating flexibility for landlords and better outcomes for communities included a number of proposals to give social landlords (local authorities and Registered Social Landlords) greater flexibility in tackling antisocial behaviour and asked whether we need to simplify the eviction process where another court has already considered antisocial behaviour by a tenant or their household. Any changes to be taken forward will form part of a Housing Bill. The consultation closed on 30 April 2012 and can be accessed online:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/02/9972/0.

The NHS Lothian Incident Management Team considered the need for Hydrosense test kits in testing for legionella bacteria, in relation to the current outbreak in south west Edinburgh. Given the pressing need to quickly identify the source of the outbreak across a number of potential sites, it was agreed that it was not the right time to adopt new technologies. It was therefore agreed that the focus should be on utilising current testing methods as they have been proven to be highly effective in previous outbreaks.

An evaluation will be undertaken following the outbreak. This will cover all aspects of the response and follow up and will include epidemiological, microbiological and environmental investigations as well as managerial, communication and administrative procedures.

Published information on headcount and whole time equivalent of (a) band 7, (b) band 8 and (c) band 2 staff in midwifery posts, as of 31 March 2012 can be found on the workforce statistics website at:

http://www.isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Health-Topics/Workforce/Nursing-and-Midwifery/.

It is for each NHS board to decide how best to plan and deliver their services to meet the needs of their population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

Patient experience was included as part of ISD’s New Ways Data Quality Assessment Project undertaken in 2008. It did not specifically cover vulnerable patients although they may have been part of the sample of patients approached. A copy of the summary report can be found at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Inpatient-Day-Cases-and-Outpatients/Data-Quality/DQA1%20Exec%20Summary%20Jan%2009.pdf.

This is a matter for NHS boards. This information is not currently held centrally. However, following the publication of the National Delivery Plan for Allied Health Professions, NHS boards will be required to report nationally on a standardised measure of musculoskeletal plain image reporting. And they will also be required to develop an action plan to use reporting radiographers effectively in their board.

NHS board area drugs and therapeutics committees review a medicine that has been accepted by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in the context of existing comparable medicines available to treat the same condition via the board’s formulary or approved list. They do this by taking an overview of its place in therapy within current pathways, and determining the treatment protocol(s) and resource and service implications of its local implementation. The committee will then make a recommendation to the NHS board on whether or not to include the drug in the local formulary.

As stated in CMO (2012) 1, where a drug is not included on a local formulary, NHS boards are now expected to state what the alternative drug is.

The Scottish Woman Held Maternity Record (SWHMR) was updated in 2011 and is part of a range of actions underway to support NHS boards’ implementation of the Refreshed Framework for Maternity Care (2011), to ensure that care in Scotland is person centred, safe and effective. As set out in the Framework, it is the responsibility of NHS boards to ensure that maternity services gather, record and report on a wide range of information for both local and national purposes, and have IT systems that comply with nationally identified data requirements.

NHS boards received funding in early June 2012, for 2012-13, outlining the government’s continued support with implementation of recommendations in the framework, and this specifically includes data collection. NHS boards recently provided an update on their progress with this, which indicated that they are planning to move towards electronic systems for information collection and analysis.