Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-29613

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to meet the HEAT target to “reduce the number of readmissions (within one year) for those that have had a hospital admission of over 7 days by 10% (by the end of December 2009)”.

A range of local actions are in train to support the readmissions target, which is designed to help drive improvements in community mental health services (notably in crisis and out-of-hours services), including patient pathways and effective discharge planning.

NHS boards are working with others, and are supported by The Mental Health Collaborative, to support and meet this target. Actions include: mapping current services; gathering and analysing local data on readmissions; staff training; involving service users and carers in service improvement; and improving data systems.

The NHS in Scotland is currently exceeding the readmissions target according to the latest available figures, with an overall decrease of 26%.

Question reference: S3W-29657

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the delayed guidance on procurement of social services will comment on call-off contracts.

Question reference: S3W-29649

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what the national response times are for calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The Scottish Ambulance Service national response time target for category A calls (life threatening) across mainland Scotland is that, by March 2009, 75% of all incidents should be reached within eight minutes. This measure is also part of the NHS Scotland HEAT Performance Management system.

The Scottish Ambulance Service national response time target for category B calls (serious but not life threatening) across mainland Scotland is that, by March 2009, 95% of all incidents should be reached within 14, 19 or 21 minutes depending on population density.

These targets are ones that the Scottish Ambulance Service were working towards during 2007-08 and 2008-09.

The performance information requested is set out in the following table. Information broken down by parliamentary constituency is not held centrally.

NHS Board	March 2008 (%)		March 2009 (%)
NHS Board	Cat A	Cat B	Cat A	Cat B
Argyll and Clyde	70.6	95.4	80.2	95.8
Ayrshire and Arran	65.5	95.4	75.7	97.2
Borders	53.7	90.3	65.6	94.3
Dumfries and Galloway	61.5	91.7	71.5	94.4
Fife	68.2	95.1	79.9	98.1
Forth Valley	65.0	93.9	77.8	97.4
Grampian	76.5	96.4	79.1	96.2
Greater Glasgow	69.6	89.1	77.8	91.1
Highland	66.3	92.4	70.0	92.4
Lanarkshire	65.1	96.3	76.7	97.0
Lothian	69.3	96.1	78.7	96.9
Tayside	69.3	95.4	77.9	96.9
Mainland Scotland	68.4	94.0	77.4	95.5

Notes:

*Information provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

**SAS systems record data under the previous structure of 15 geographic health boards.

Question reference: S3W-29658

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the use of call-off contracts by local authorities in the procurement of social care services and, if so, by which authorities.

The Scottish Government is aware that a number of local authorities in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK have established framework agreements for the procurement of social care services. However, we do not hold a central record of framework agreements established by local authorities. We are seeking further examples of good practice in relation to the establishment of framework agreements in this context to accompany the forthcoming guidance on social care procurement.

Question reference: S3W-29655

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that call-off contracts should be used in the procurement of social care services.

Call-off contracts are contracts awarded under the terms and conditions set out in a framework agreement with a service provider or number of service providers. The establishment of a framework agreement allows a public body to make individual purchases without repeating many of the stages of a competitive tendering process.

The Scottish Government recognises that the use of framework agreements can be appropriate in the context of social care procurement. The forthcoming guidance on social care procurement will provide information on the establishment of framework agreements and the award of call-off contracts under a framework agreement.

Question reference: S3W-29620

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is providing to the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) Get Active campaign.

Government officials have met with representatives of the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) on several occasions to ensure their input to the development of the Commonwealth Games 2014 legacy plan. Since the launch of the plan, officials have been working closely with SAMH to ensure integration of their plans for 12 pilot projects to support delivery of the Get Active campaign, with the current roll out of the Community Sports Hubs network legacy project.

In addition the Scottish Government has a long history of providing support and significant funding to SAMH in recognition of the valuable contribution they make to promoting, campaigning and delivering services for those with a mental health problem, their carers and families.

Question reference: S3W-29610

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing a waiting time target for general adult mental health services.

Prior to May 2007, there were no waiting time targets for mental health. We have in place clear mental health delivery targets which continue to drive improvements across all mental health services to improve access. Most adults accessing mental health services for the first time do so within unplanned or crisis care, and this happens quickly.

We are addressing those areas where delays occur in planned access to services. For the first time, we have established a referral to treatment waiting time target for access to specialist child and adolescent mental health services that means that by March 2013 no one will wait longer than 26 weeks. We are also working to establish an access target for psychological therapies.

Question reference: S3W-29618

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in achieving the HEAT target to “reduce the suicide rate between 2002 and 2013 by 20%, supported by 50% of key frontline staff in mental health and substance misuse services, primary care, and accident and emergency being educated and trained in using suicide assessment tools/suicide prevention training programmes by (2010-2013)”.

Question reference: S3W-29611

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is regarding the reduction in mental health services in some local authorities.

Local authorities and NHS boards have responsibility to work in partnership and allocate resources on the basis of local needs and priorities, within the context of the Scottish Government''s key strategic objectives and commitments.

The concordat and single outcome agreements (SOAs) are designed to greatly enhance local decision-making and funding in all service areas “ including mental health - based on the profiling of those needs and priorities within each local authority, and informed by local knowledge and experience.

While we do not formally monitor the effects of the introduction of SOAs on specific services, work being undertaken on social care mental health benchmarking will give a clearer benchmark and more comparative information about activity, investment and, in time, outcomes.

All local authorities have submitted their 2008-09 SOA annual report to the Scottish Government, and to their local communities. The Scottish Government intends to publish an overview commentary shortly, which will pick up key messages emerging from the reports. We also offer support and advice to enable local authorities and other partners to consider the strategic priorities across the range of community care areas to inform use of resources and service redesign, in order to improve outcomes for people who use services, and their carers

We have also commissioned research on how the third sector is responding to the new opportunities and challenges arising from their new relationship with the public sector. This research was commissioned with the engagement of the third sector and public sector partners and will focus on a number of third sector organisations, the names of which should be published early next year.

Question reference: S3W-29612

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 December 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 15 December 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to meet the HEAT target to “reduce the annual rate of increase of defined daily dose per capita of antidepressants to zero by 2009-10 and put in place the required support framework to achieve a 10% reduction in future years”.

In order to meet this HEAT target, the Scottish Government has established the Mental Health Collaborative (MHC), whose primary role is to support NHS boards, and their key partners in delivering improvements in evidence-based prescribing of antidepressants and improved access to non-drug treatments (including psychological therapies).

This is done by providing dedicated time to NHS boards to focus on improvement work; providing training in tools and techniques that have a track record of improving services; supporting Boards to then apply those techniques to this area of work, and enabling effective sharing of knowledge across Scotland about what is and what isn''t working to deliver improvements.

In addition, we have also established Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) for mental health in line with National standards and supported and accredited by NHS Quality Improvement to monitor and report on NHS board''s progress. A key milestone for development and implementation of foundation level accreditation was set for September 2009 and all NHS boards met this level.

For non-drug treatments, we have increased capacity for improved access to evidence based psychological therapies; by ensuring that resources are used effectively by delivering only evidence-based care.

The Mental Health Collaborative is already supporting boards to improve access times for psychological therapies. It will continue to provide support to ensure evidence based prescribing of antidepressants

The Scottish Government has been working with NES to produce The Matrix - a Guide to delivering evidence-based Psychological Therapies in Scotland - which gives advice to health boards on the issues involved in the delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions, including strategic service planning, training standards, and adequate levels of supervision.