Chamber and committees

There have been a number of meetingsbetween officials of the four UK administrations since the announcement of the schemein August 2003 concerning fundamental aspects that have a bearing on the applicationforms. Draft application forms prepared by the Macfarlane Trust were discussed ata meeting on 26 March 2004 which was also attended by representatives of HaemophiliaSociety, the Scottish Haemophilia Groups Forum, the Hepatitis C Trust, the MacfarlaneTrust, the Primary Immunodeficiency Association, Capital C, and Haemophilia Wales.A representative from the Haemophilia Society of Northern Ireland was invited butwas unable to attend.

We are not at this time making specific funding available in this way.

I refer the member to the answer given to S2W-7978 on 18 May 2004, for how we are tackling the parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The General Medical Council wasnot consulted.

This information is not heldcentrally.

More social workers are beingtrained. There was a 25% increase in qualifying social workers in 2003, and thesenumbers will increase by a further 33% over the next two years. The Social WorkServices Inspectorate is significantly increasing investment in training over thenext three years and is keen to work closely with all service providers, includingthose who work with people who are deaf or hard of hearing, to improve trainingof staff.

The Sensory Impairment ActionPlan, launched by the Scottish Executive in January 2004 recognises the importance of having trainedstaff available to work with people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and is nowtaking the work of the Action Plan forward to address the needs identified.

We will publish an IntegratedEarly Years Strategy later this year and we will consider any lessons when theyemerge from the Early Support Pilot Programme.

This information is not heldcentrally.

The Sensory Impairment ActionPlan, launched in January 2004 recognises the importance of improving training forstaff who provide services for people with a sensory impairment, including thosewho are deaf or hard of hearing, and the Scottish Executive is now taking the work of theAction Plan forward to address issues, including training for social work and otherstaff.

We would expect local authoritiesto abide by the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act when it comesinto force.

We would expect the focus ona person-centred approach in single shared assessment to improve understanding ofindividual’s needs. Councils will determine their training needs in the light of the Scottish Executive’s guidance on single shared assessment.

The number of local authority primary schools closed in each of the calendar years concerned is shown in table 1 below. The table includes schools that have merged to form new schools in the local area and also, in a small number of cases, where a separate educational unit has closed and then been integrated into a school. The information is derived from the annual Scottish Executive Education Department school opening and closing exercise.

Local Authority	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Aberdeen City	1	1			1
Aberdeenshire	1	1			1
Angus		2	1
Argyll and Bute	1				1
Dumfries and Galloway		2		3	1
Edinburgh City	1			4	4
Eilean Siar		1	2	1
Fife					2
Glasgow City	1			6
Highland		3	5	4	1
Moray		3
North Lanarkshire	2	5
Orkney		1
Scottish Borders		1
West Lothian			1

 

Closures for which the Consent of Ministers was Required

Angus	St Vigean’s Primary School	Closed 2001
Argyll and Bute	Portnahaven Primary School	Closed 1999
Dumfries andGalloway	Westerkirk Primary School	Closed 2000
	All Soul’s RC Primary School	Closed 2002
	Laurieston Primary School	Closed 2002
	St Cuthbert’s RC Primary School	Closed 2002
	Corsock Primary School	Closed 2003
Eilean Siar	Manish Primary School	Closed 2000
	Dunskellar Primary School	Closed 2002
Highland	Loch Choire Primary School	Closed 2000
Moray	Boharm Primary School	Closed 2000
	Glenrinnes Primary School	Closed 2000
West Lothian	Abercorn Primary School	Closed 2001

Although welfare benefits area reserved matter, the Executive is committed to improving the services for blindand partially sighted people in Scotland and has recently launched its Eye Care Review which willpromote better integration of services within the NHS, and between the NHS and otheragencies.

It has also begun working withother bodies on implementing the recommendations in the Sensory Impairment ActionPlan which will address the community care needs of people who are blind, deaf ordeafblind. The action plan was written in consultation with the Royal National Instituteof the Blind, The Scottish Council on Deafness and Deafblind Scotland.