Chamber and committees

I announced as part of the debate on the 2011-12 Scottish Budget on 9 February 2011 that I intend to allocate an additional £5 million to help smooth the impact of the redistribution of the former ring-fenced Supporting People funding within the distribution formula as a result of updating the needs-based indicators for 2011-12. I have also invited COSLA to match that amount. The distribution of these extra funds has still to be agreed but I fully expect that both Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire Councils will receive additional allocations of money given that they were the two local authorities that lost out most, proportionately, from the updating of the indicators.

I did not refuse to meet West Dunbartonshire Council. Following a request from the council, my office notified it that I would not be able to meet before the requested date of 27 January 2011 due to my other diary commitments.

With effect from 1 April 2008 the former ring-fenced Supporting People funding was rolled-up into the general local government finance settlement and distributed as part of the block grant which the Scottish Government provides to local authorities. There are, therefore, no separate Supporting People allocations of funding for 2011-12 although the distribution of this funding has been retained within the needs-based formula.

The distribution of this former ring-fenced funding was based on a number of needs-based indicators agreed in 2004. These indicators were, as agreed at COSLA''s leaders meeting held on 19 November 2010 updated for the 2011-12 distribution. The effects of using the 2004 indicators were dampened by an interim adjustment, introduced for the period 2005-08, which ensured that no local authority would lose more than 18 per cent of its funding over the period 2005-08 compared with it''s allocation in 2004-05. This adjustment was not retained in the 2011-12 calculations. In recognition of the impact that the dampening had on individual local authority funding allocation for 2011-12 I announced as part of the debate on the 2011-12 Scottish Budget on 9 February 2011 that I intend to allocate an additional £5 million to tackling the problem and have invited COSLA to match that amount. The distribution, once agreed with COSLA, will be included in the Local Government Finance (Scotland) Amendment Order 2011 to be tabled March 2011.

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) do not collate and categorise sickness absence figures into those relating to purely work-related stress. NSS do however collate sickness absence figures for employees absent for the following reasons - anxiety, stress, depression, other psychological illness. The figures provided below represent the number of NSS employees absent from work due to those reasons:

2007-08	67
2008-09	143
2009-10	189
2010-11	(to date)109

NHS NSS have indicated that the increase in recorded cases is due to improved reason for absence recording rather than an upward trend in actual cases. It is also important to note that the 2007-08 figure relates to stress only.

Information on the number of general practitioners that have gained Completed Certificate of Training is only available from the year 2000, as detailed in the following table:

Year	Total
2000	221
2001	235
2002	228
2003	232
2004	245
2005	222
2006	241
2007	268
2008	248
2009	258
2010	247

Source: NHS Education for Scotland.

Based on current projected figures, 331 general practitioners will complete their training in 2011.

In line with our manifesto commitment, the Scottish Government has increased access to sexual health information and advice services across Scotland. Additional funding of £1 million over the years 2008-09 to 2009-10 was provided to help achieve this. As agreed with stakeholders, half of the additional funding for 2008-09 was allocated to NHS boards to assist them to increase access to accurate sexual health information, particularly in rural areas. This funding has been used to create or update local websites and service information, improve public access to sexual health websites and support the provision of information by voluntary organisations.

In 2009 the Scottish Government launched the Sexual Health Scotland website, which provides information, help and advice. This can be accessed at:

http://www.sexualhealthscotland.co.uk.

The Scottish Government also provides funding to a number of voluntary organisations throughout Scotland which provide independent sexual health and advice services.

In addition, the availability of local drop-in services for young people, offering general health advice, chlamydia testing, pregnancy testing and condoms has increased in line with our National Outcomes 2008-11. The majority of areas are working towards an integrated approach to providing accessible sexual health services for young people, either within school by the school nursing staff, or outwith school, with an emphasis on targeting vulnerable groups of young people. Most nurses working in schools deliver health education programmes on puberty followed by age appropriate information on positive sexual health, including contraception and STIs within secondary schools. Where chlamydia testing or pregnancy testing is included within the health service, the process of setting up clinics has been done in full consultation with teachers, parents, young people and the local authority.

With regard to improved health outcomes, it is too early to measure. However, research suggests that young people require access to information and advice in order for them to take responsible decisions on sexual health and relationships.

Since 2007, the Scottish Government has been working on a number of ways to tackle poor oral health in children. We have launched a number of successful government funded projects across Scotland. One such project is the Childsmile Schools Programme, a school based dental preventative service. This Childsmile programme provides a twice-yearly fluoride varnish application as a preventive treatment for children in P1 and P2. 20% of schools in an NHS board area are included in the programme. Schools are ranked by the proportions of children in P1 and P2 in each school residing in the most deprived local SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) quintile.

(a) Cumulative Total of Childsmile Schools

NHS Board	Schools Covered by Childsmile 2007-08 to Date*
Ayrshire and Arran	34
Borders	13
Dumfries and Galloway	10
Fife	34
Forth Valley	19
Grampian	75
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	143
Highland	46
Lanarkshire	67
Lothian	56
Orkney	1
Shetland	26
Tayside	44
Western Isles	5
Total	508

Note: *Data from HIC database excluding Greater Glasgow and Clyde total from locally held data.

(b) Pupils are covered; 53,421 pupils across Scotland have had at least one fluoride varnish through Childsmile School 2007-08 to date.

In the period from 31 March 2007 to 31 March 2010 the number of dentists working in NHS general dental services has increased from 2,474 to 2,847.

Access to NHS general dental services in Scotland has increased, and 85% of general dental practices are regarded as NHS committed.

The substantial increase in the number of dentists working in NHS general dental services in Scotland has been achieved by the significant steps taken by the Scottish Government to address dental service recruitment and retention problems since 2007.

The Scottish Government has:

Invested £368.2 million in 2009-10 in NHS general dental services in Scotland;

Provided funding of £82 million, over two years, for the Primary and Community Care Premises Modernisation programme. The top priority for this funding is the development of new dental centres for general dental practitioners working in the NHS;

Delivered on a manifesto commitment to re-introduce the school based dental service, through the Childsmile programme currently being rolled out across Scotland; and

Delivered on a commitment to establish a third dental school in Scotland when the Aberdeen Dental School opened in October 2008.

The dental bursary (introduced in 2006) continues to be available to students studying in the three dental schools in Scotland.  Students can apply for a bursary of £4,000 per year on condition that they undertake to work in NHS dentistry in Scotland for up to five years following qualification. Approximately 580 students are currently in receipt of the bursary.

Financial assistance is also available through the revised Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) scheme to help dentists to establish or expand practices.

Significant financial incentives aimed at encouraging dentists to join NHS boards'' dental lists continue to be available. These include:

Remote Areas Allowance;

Vocational trainees payments;

Payments to dentists joining NHS board dental lists;

Commitment payments;

Grants to establish new or improve existing vocational training practices;

Reimbursement of either full or partial practice rental costs; and

Deprived areas enhancements.

All NHS boards in Scotland provide a child health programme. The universal programme for child health screening and surveillance is set out in Health for all Children 4: Guidance on Implementation in Scotland. This details the health checks that should be undertaken on entry to primary school, in Primary 7 and in secondary school. Children and young people with identified health needs will have a series of reviews throughout school.

Guidance on the Administration of Medicines in Schools was published in 2001 and states that an individual health care plan should be drawn up for every child or young person with health care needs to identify the level and type of support that will be needed at school, including information about response to emergency situations.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (as amended) places duties on education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs and duties on appropriate agencies, including NHS boards, to help an education authority in the exercise of its functions under it.

Education authorities, NHS boards and other appropriate agencies should work together to ensure the effective co-ordination and implementation of support to address a child''s or young person''s needs. In line with Getting it right for every child, where more than one agency or service is involved, the child or young person should have one integrated plan in place, which may be made up of different elements, such as the educational or health plans required by the individual.

We do not collate information centrally on how many pupils receive individual health plans.

NHS National Services Scotland respond to all harassment and bullying allegations under their harassment and bullying policy, last published in August 2010. The policy states that all allegations of harassment and bullying should be investigated.