Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has ensured that by legislating to require local authorities to offer deferred payment agreements, no-one should have to sell their home during their lifetime to fund the cost of their residential care.

The Scottish Government introduced free personal and nursing care for people aged 65 and over in July 2002. The Local Authority pays for these elements of the residential care for all those assessed as needing them. The current rates are
£171 per week for personal care and this rises to £249 per week if nursing care is also required. The Scottish Government reviews these payment rates on an annual basis.

You may also be aware we have committed to the extension of Free Personal Care to all under 65s who require it regardless of condition, Scottish Ministers have committed that this extension will be in place by 1 April 2019. This will benefit younger people in residential care.

In the current financial year almost half a billion pounds of NHS spending will be invested in social care services, underlining the importance we attach to improving services, and ensuring that people are able to receive care in their own homes or in a homely setting.

In Scotland there are three regional Neonatal Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs), for the West of Scotland (WoS), South East and Tayside (SEAT) and North of Scotland (NoS). The MCNs aim to hold meetings quarterly however this will vary depending on business need.

The aims of the networks are:

• To support the delivery of high quality neonatal care for all their residents

• To ensure that mothers and babies are treated in the right hospital at the right time and by the right staff with the appropriate skills.

• To agree a model of care based on core values where provision of care should be provided as close to home as possible, minimising transport where possible but accepting that some babies may require transfer for intensive care services

• Agree pathways of care and clinical guidelines

• To provide high quality services by addressing key issues such as data collection, capacity, workforce, education and training of staff

• To audit activity and outcomes of neonatal services both across the network and against national statements within Neonatal Care in Scotland: A Quality Framework, published in March 2013 (see link on page)

• To consult with and collaborate with users of the service to enhance the services and their experiences

• Each neonatal MCN to work inter-regionally

The North of Scotland region MCN includes the following Boards:

• Highland

• Grampian,

• Orkney,

• Shetland,

The West of Scotland region MCN includes the following Boards:

• Ayrshire & Arran,

• Dumfries & Galloway,

• Forth Valley,

• Greater Glasgow & Clyde,

• Lanarkshire, and

• Western Isles.

South East and Tayside region MCN includes the following Boards:

• Lothian,

• Tayside,

• Fife,

• Borders

Following recommendations in The Best Start, work is underway to facilitate the transition from three regional MCNs to one national MCN.

Within the NHS there is absolutely no assumption that mothers expecting a disabled child will want to terminate the pregnancy.

The Scottish Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme aims to ensure that women and couples are provided with high quality information so that they can make an informed choice about their screening options and pregnancy choices.

Information on vacancies for consultants with a specialty of clinical radiology is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following web link:-

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2017-03-07/Consultant_Vacancies_D2016.xls

Information on consultant vacancies outwith NHSScotland is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government is aware of disruptions in the supply chain for some commonly-used generic medicines. This is not a Scotland-only issue, but is experienced across the UK.

The NHS Prescribing Advisers Network routinely monitors and reports weekly on such disruptions across all Health Boards, so that action can be taken locally to advise GPs and other prescribers of clinically appropriate alternatives where this may be necessary to support continuity of care.

(a) i) The Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory (SLDO) are one of the key strategic partners of the Scottish Government and are core funded through the Keys to Life Learning Disabilities strategy. Within their work plan, SLDO has investigated the fall in termination rates in Down syndrome pregnancies in Scotland, the most common additional physical health needs that adults with Down syndrome experience, and the impact of age and gender on these and survival rate of infants and children born with Down syndrome in Scotland, and their health needs/reasons for hospital admissions in childhood/youth compared with people without Down syndrome

There have been no applications for research projects on Down’s Syndrome submitted to, or funded by, the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office in the last year.

ii) Screening for Down’s Syndrome is the responsibility of local Health Boards. Funding for this forms part of the NHS financial allocation for each Board.

b) Down's Syndrome Scotland (DSS) are one of the key national delivery partners of the Keys to Life, Scotland's national Learning Disabilities strategy. The Scottish Government have provided £225,000 of fund to DSS in 2016-17 and £264,000 in 2017-18. We have invested this money to support core DSS functions as well as for project related activity. Part of this funding has also been used to support DSS in hosting next year's World Down Syndrome Congress, which will take place in Glasgow from 25-27 July 2018.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of people with learning disabilities through the Keys to Life strategic outcomes.

Down's Syndrome Scotland (DSS) is one of our key national delivery partners on our learning disability strategy. As Scotland’s only charity to work specifically with people with Down’s syndrome and their families, the Scottish Government core funds DSS. During 2016-17 we funded DSS’s Achieving Better Communication programme, which provides information and support to parents and activities for children to develop speech, language and communication skills that can be continued in the home and school environment. We have also funded DSS’s parent hub and programme. This project will strengthen the support DSS offers parents through its existing parental workshop programme by delivering online learning materials and publications free of charge. This modular online programme will make it easier for parents to access information and support when it suits them. The programme complements the personal support offered by DSS through its Family Support Service.

We are supporting DSS to host next year’s World Down Syndrome Congress, which will take place in Glasgow between 25 and 27 July 2018. Held every three years, the congress gathers together the global community interested in Down's syndrome and facilitates networking and the sharing of experience and best practice, and gives people with Down’s syndrome a platform to have their voices heard. More than 1,300 are expected to attend the event. In anticipation of the congress we have funded the development of a commissioner project, the purpose of which is to recruit 24 adults with Down's syndrome who will act as leaders and facilitators (or commissioners) or volunteers at the congress.

Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in the national screening programme will not be used to reveal non-medical features of the fetus, such as sex.

The introduction of this new test raises some difficult issues that need to be carefully considered. That is why the UK National Screening Committee has recommended that NIPT should be introduced as part of an evaluative roll out. This means that the introduction of NIPT can be monitored at each stage of roll out and any changes to the pathway and screening processes can be made quickly and effectively.

The UK National Screening Committee which advises Ministers and the NHS in all four UK countries about all aspects of screening, commissioned the Nuffield Council on Bioethics to produce a report considering the ethical values of recent and potential future scientific developments in Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT). The report was published on the 1 March 2017 and concluded that women and couples should be offered NIPT, but only within an environment that enables them to make autonomous, informed choices. Any change to the existing screening programme in Scotland will take the findings of the Nuffield Report into consideration. The report can be found here: http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/non-invasive-prenatal-testing/findings

The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring that pregnant women in Scotland have access to high quality, safe and effective screening services and the Scottish Screening Committee is now looking at the use of NIPT as an additional screening test for Down’s syndrome in Scotland.

Ministers have not met with Premaitha Heath or any other biotech firm that develop Non-invasive Prenatal Tests in the past 12 months.