Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has made clear that for councils to access the full amount of the financial package, it will require each local authority to agree formally to the full list of commitments contained within the package.

Each local authority leader has been asked to write to the Scottish Government, by 28 February 2011 at the latest, to provide a formal assurance that the budget approved by the council includes provision to deliver all the specified commitments agreed. If not, the revenue funding available to the councils concerned will be reduced by an average of 6.4%, rather than 2.6%.

Local authorities receive funding from the Scottish Government in the form of a block grant. There is no education funding allocation. It is for each local authority to deploy the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities, its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives. Argyll and Bute Council''s provisional allocation for 2011-12 is £220.059 million if it signs up to the terms of the financial package by 28 February. bor

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-38425 on 20 January 2011 with regard to there being no education funding allocation. All answers to written parliamentary question are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Argyll and Bute Council''s provisional allocation for 2011-12 is £220.059 million if it signs up to the terms of the financial package by 28 February. If it does not sign up by 28 February it will receive £211.981 million, £8.078 million less.

The following table sets out the number of patients, by NHS board, who were referred to pain management centres outside of Scotland in 2008-09, 2009-10 and in 2010-11 (up to 14 September 2010). In all cases, patients were referred to the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, in Bath.

NHS Board	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11 (to 14 September 2010)
Ayrshire and Arran	2	2	2
Borders	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0
Fife	3	3	1
Forth Valley	0	0	2
Grampian	7	2	8
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1	0	2
Highland	1	2	1
Lanarkshire	2	0	1
Lothian	1	0	0
Tayside	6	9	4
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Western Isles	0	0	0
Total	23	18	21

 

This is being considered as part of the service model for chronic pain being developed by the Chronic Pain Steering Group.

My meeting with representatives of the Scottish Muscle Network, which is due to take place early in 2011, has been arranged to discuss taking forward the recommendations in both the mapping exercise carried out by the network and in the Mackie Report published by the Cross Party Group on Muscular Dystrophy.

The Scottish Funding Council was informed on 10 December 2010 that the number of student nurses and midwives entering degree programmes in 2011-12 will be 2,700.

Clinicians will discuss with their patients all aspects of their care including information and advice on treatment options where the evidence base is strongest and which will achieve the best possible outcomes.

Those assessed as requiring evidence based psychological therapies will have those arranged and delivered in line with national clinical guidelines and on the basis of a thorough needs assessment. In this respect, we are committed to increasing access to evidence based psychological therapies for all. We are including a specific access target in HEAT in 2011-12.

Otherwise, the question of access generally to the internet by patients who are subject to detention in hospital under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 is a matter for the hospital concerned in terms of individual patient care and applying the principles of the act.

Further to the answer to question S3W-37687, the number of new entrants to the foundation training programme in Scotland for 2011-12 will remain at 804.

I have no current plans to reduce foundation training programme places in Scotland.