Chamber and committees

The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013: statutory guidance states that if a supported person is dissatisfied with their care, their local authority should make the person aware that they can make use of the local authority's complaints procedure.

Supported people, their families and carers have the right to access a simple, timely and accessible formal complaints procedure if they feel they have been unfairly or unreasonably treated, or if they wish to challenge a decision that the local authority has made about their support. Local authority complaints processes therefore must be compliant with the 2013 Act.

Local government revenue funding is 2.6 per cent higher in real terms than it was in 2013-14 - as confirmed by the Accounts Commission. Local authorities also have a range of revenue raising powers that are not available to other public services, including newly devolved powers over empty property rates relief.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 (2013 Act) Statutory Guidance states that:

“The Statutory Guidance accompanying the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 sets out guidance for effective commissioning and procurement processes, including the putting in place of procurement plans providing specific detail to direct those responsible for contracting services.

In addition, best practice guidance on the procurement of care and support services provides further guidance on how procurement considerations can support SDS, where a public contract is the chosen form for funding social care provision.

The authority should seek to use the flexibility within the procurement regulatory regime to meet the legal duties of the 2013 Act. Local authorities should consider how best to develop a procurement strategy that ensure that the ability to ‘self-direct’ is not lost, and that the number of providers is not reduced unnecessarily.

If a supported person chooses to use option one and receive a direct payment they may then also choose to employ a personal assistant. The Social Care (Self-Directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 Statutory Guidance states that, of the four SDS options, "Option 1 requires a level of responsibility that is greater than some of the other options. The local authority should make this point clear to the supported person. It should be transparent but it should also be supportive, explaining the additional support and information that can make the direct payment work for the supported person. The authority should ensure the supported person is offered independent advice and support where appropriate."

As part of their duty of care, the authority social worker should explain direct payment responsibilities to the supported person, relatives and relevant circles of support where applicable. They should also explain the additional support and information that the person can receive in order to manage their payment.

Since the start of the pandemic we have worked collaboratively with Public Health Scotland and National Services Scotland to continuously update and improve our NHS Inform information , the online booking portal and access to the National Vaccination Helpline.

For the helpline we continuously monitor call wait times and when they rise above expected service level agreement wait times, we increase the numbers of call handlers to bring these down (to note this cannot be done immediately, as we need to bring in more staff which can take over 24 hours). The helpline also work closely with the scheduling team so that when a large number of invites go out to groups that typically use the helpline as opposed to the online portal, such as those of older age, we pre-emptively step up the number of call handlers to meet expected demand. We have automated messages explaining the current queue length and time, so that people can choose to call back at a quieter time. For those who cannot speak for long amounts of time, we have a mechanism whereby a nominated individual can speak on another person’s behalf.

We have continued to make the online portal as user friendly as possible. The latest development in 2023 was to make it easier for users to see the next available appointment is at their clinic of choice. We also include a person’s username in their appointment letter and this contains a QR code that will take them straight to the Winter vaccines | NHS inform landing page. NHS Inform contains helpful step-by-step videos on how to use the portal to book or change an appointment and we constantly monitor feedback from the public in regards to the portal to inform future changes and developments.

Public reporting of the winter flu and COVID-19 vaccination programme launched on 21 September and can be accessed via PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

The only publicly currently available data is the total number of vaccinations administered for both Covid-19 and flu. By the end of October, Public Health Scotland will begin publishing uptake data by eligible JCVI groups, including those at highest risk. It will also publish Health Board-level uptake data, alongside other information such as uptake by ethnicity and SIMD.

The additional data isn’t publicly available because it is management information that cannot be disclosed until the necessary data quality checks are complete to ensure that the data is robust. In the meantime, officials and health boards are using the management information to monitor uptake to ensure that it is what we are expecting.

The Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland are statutorily responsible for the scrutiny of local authority performance and financial management in Scotland.

As part of the annual accounts audit process, Audit Scotland or its appointed auditors will assess and report their findings with regards to the financial management and sustainability of a local authority.

In addition, Audit Scotland also audit and report their findings on the statutory duty of local authorities to secure Best Value, which includes the requirement to ensure financial sustainability. Best Value audit reports are scrutinised by both the Accounts Commission and the Scottish Ministers.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we do recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

East Lothian Council convened an Incident Response Group as the incident required a multi-agency, co-ordinated response. As part of the co-ordinated response, a sub-group consisting of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA’s) Airborne Hazard Emergency Response (AHER) Team, Public Health Scotland and the local Health Board, provided scientific advice in relation to air quality and impacts on human health.

No additional assessment by Scottish Government on air quality, local people or wildlife was therefore required.

SEPA is continuing to engage with the operator and investigating the incident.

The Scottish Government places great importance on leisure facilities, particularly swimming pools and believes everyone should have access to these services locally.

We are fully aware that local authorities are facing challenging financial circumstances, particularly in the maintenance and operating of facilities such as swimming pools and ice rinks, largely due to energy costs and other cost of living pressures.

The Scottish Government received consequentials of £5.816m from the UK Government from their swimming pool fund. These consequentials are added to the Scottish Block as a whole and it is ultimately for Ministers to decide how to utilise available funding in the context of a challenging financial backdrop and existing budgetary pressures.

In 2023-24 the Scottish Government provided nearly £13.5bn in the Local Government Settlement and increased the resources available to local government by more than £793 million, including £100 million of additional funding at Stage 3 of the Budget Bill, funded in part by consequentials provided at the UK Budget. This was a real terms increase of £376 million or 3% compared to the 2022-23 Budget figures. In addition, Scottish Ministers allocated a further £55m ahead of the summer. This follows on from the additional £1 billion of funding provided to Local Government in 2022-23.

The funding of local sports and leisure facilities, including swimming pools is the responsibility of our local authorities and, as independent corporate bodies, it is for local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities.