- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what steps will be taken to ensure the safety and well-being of the 64% of blind or partially-sighted people who currently do not have daily visits from someone they trust.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has recently worked with the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB),Deafblind Scotland, the Scottish Council on Deafness and sensory impairedpeople to produce a Sensory Impairment Action Plan. This document contains a seriesof recommendations to improve access to community care services for sensory-impairedpeople and the Scottish Executive will be working in partnership with the RNIB, DeafblindScotland and the Scottish Council on Deafness and other organisations to implementthem.
The needs of blind and visuallyimpaired people are also being addressed through the Eye Care Review which is examiningthe existing arrangements for the provision of eye care services and will make recommendationsfor effective models of care.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what targets have been set for eye health and community care services for people with sight loss and what date has been set for such targets to be met.
Answer
I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7896 on 12 May 2004. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps will be taken to address any under-reporting of partial sight, in light of the statement that such under-reporting “has led to very misleading registration figures and the erroneous assumption amongst planners of care services that sight loss is a low-incidence disability” in the report by the Royal National Institute of the Blind, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss.
Answer
The Executive is currently undertakinga review of the certification and registration of visual impairment in Scotland witha view to improving the registration process.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Royal National Institute of the Blind's report, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what steps will be taken to ensure that local authorities respond comprehensively to the needs of blind and partially-sighted people and that such action is taken in a consistent manner nationally.
Answer
I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-7896 on 12 May 2004. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 12 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the report by the Royal National Institute of the Blind, Unseen: Neglect, isolation and household poverty amongst older people with sight loss, what steps will be taken to introduce guidance on early referral for people diagnosed with sight loss to ensure greater take-up of low vision assessment and availability of social care assessment at time of need.
Answer
The Executive has launched anEye Care Review in order to improve services for blind and partially sighted peoplein Scotland and to promote better integration of services withinthe NHS, and between the NHS and other agencies. The review will examine the existingarrangements for the provision of eye care services and make recommendations foreffective models of care.
It has also begun work, withother bodies, on implementing the recommendations in the Sensory Impairment ActionPlan to address the community care needs of people who are blind, deaf or deafblind.The action plan was written in consultation with the Royal National Institute of the Blind, The Scottish Council on Deafness and Deafblind Scotland.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 6 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when the combined sheriff court and police station in Peebles will be operational.
Answer
Iunderstand that discussions are continuing between the Scottish Borders Council,the Scottish Court Service and Lothian and BordersPolice around the plans for the new joint facility. Once these are successfullyconcluded, I am advised that building work would be expected to be completed byend 2005.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 April 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 5 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many care homes have closed in (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02, (c) 2002-03 and (d) 2003 to date, broken down by local authority area, in light the report in The Herald on 1 April 2004 on care home closures.
Answer
Table 1 shows the total number of residential care homes for older people and nursing homes which opened and closed in (a) 2000-01 and (b) 2001-02. Note that some homes were dual registered and will be counted in both columns.
Table 1
| | Residential Care Homes for Older People | Nursing Homes |
| Number of Homes – 31 March 2000 | 631 | 557 |
| Opened | 20 | 15 |
| Closed | 30 | 3 |
| Number of Homes – 31 March 2001 | 621 | 569 |
| Opened | 5 | 4 |
| Closed | 21 | 15 |
| Number of Homes – 31 March 2002 | 605 | 558 |
Sources: SEHD Community CareStatistics – R1 return, ISD Scotland – ISD(S)34 return.
Table 2 shows the number of carehomes which opened, closed or de-registered in (c) 2002-03. Note that de-registeredhomes have not closed but are now operating as housing support services.
Table 2
| | Care Homes |
| Number of homes – 31 March 2002 | 1,018 |
| De-registered | 9 |
| Number of homes – 31 March 2002 adjusted | 1,009 |
| Opened | 2 |
| Closed | 30 |
| Number of homes – 31 March 2003 | 981 |
Source: SEHD Community Care Statistics– SCHC return.
Information relating to carehomes closed in (d) 2003 to date is not currently available centrally.
The SEHD Analytical ServicesDivision are currently attempting to harmonise data from the Care Commission, localauthorities, and the ISD Nursing Home Census. Once this is completed, an accuratebreakdown by local authority area will be available.
Over the same period, the numberof people receiving care in their own homes increased (by 4 per cent) and the numberof hours of home care services provided by local authorities also increased (by11 per cent).
This reflects a continuing shift in the balance of service provision towards more care at home.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 5 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the members' business debate (Official Report; Vol 1 No 64 (Session 2) c 7178) on 25 March 2004, what plans it has to adopt policy, against the closure of rural schools in line with the presumption in England.
Answer
When the presumption was announcedin England in 1998, ministers in Scotland declined to follow suit but, rather, drewthe attention of Scottish local authorities to the importance of balancing all theeducational, financial and community issues which particular school closure proposalscan raise, and of taking account of representations made during the statutory consultationprocess before reaching decisions.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-2901 by Sarah Boyack on 14 December 1999, what progress has been made in diagnosing sleepiness as a factor in road accidents.
Answer
A road safety research reportlooking at sleepiness as a factor in road accidents was published by the UK Governmentin 2001. The report suggests that sleep could be a factor in a tenth of all roadaccidents across the whole of the road network and up to 20% on “monotonous” roads,especially motorways.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 29 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 May 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has access to statistics that note the causes, such as “driver fatigue”, of road traffic accidents.
Answer
Data about injury road accidentsare collected by the police and reported to the Scottish Executive using the Stats19 statistical report form. These returns cover only road accidents in which oneor more people were injured: they do not cover damage only accidents.
The Stats 19 returns do not recordthe causes of the accidents. Under a pilot scheme, 14 police forces across Great Britainhave been voluntarily submitting information on contributory factors to accidentsalong with their Stats 19 returns. However, it is not possible to use the pilotcontributory factor data to provide figures which are representative of accidentsin Scotland because only two police forces in Scotland tookpart in the scheme. I understand that the UK Government is analysing the pilot dataand will publish an article later in the year.
Starting in January 2005, thepilot scheme will be replaced by a new set of questions on contributory factors,which will form an integral part of the Stats 19 injury road accident reportingsystem. Information about contributory factors should thereafter be supplied byall police forces for personal injury accidents which are reported either (a) followingattendance at the scene by a police officer or (b) by a member of the public topolice staff at a police station.
