Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive is aware of private sector adult care institutions that provide services for people with learning disabilities and that some local authorities and NHS boards are commissioning such services. Information is not held centrally about the amount of public funding being used for private sector care.

The Scottish Executive remains committed to the principles of The same as you? whereby adults with learning disabilities should be provided with the care and support they need to live, wherever possible, in the community.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-19867 on 3 November 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I am aware of the report Heart Disease and South Asians, published jointly by the British Heart Foundation and the Department of Health in England. The report noted that South Asian people were more likely to die prematurely from coronary heart disease (CHD) than the general population. However, the report also noted that the reason for increased incidence of CHD cannot be fully explained.

Coronary heart disease has a number of common risk factors with diabetes, and people with diabetes have a significantly higher risk of developing heart disease. We have therefore set up an Ethnic Minority subgroup of the Scottish Diabetes Group to consider how to reduce risk factors and how to improve diabetes services for those who do develop the condition. This work, while focused on diabetes, will also reduce the risk of developing CHD.

More generally, we issued a Health Department Letter in 2002 (HDL (2002)51) which required NHS organisations to address the challenge of ethnic minority health and to develop local demographic profiles of access to services by all ethnic groups. We will also start to collect data on ethnicity as part of the SCI Coronary Heart Disease data and information system later this year. This will enable us to monitor incidence of CHD within the South Asian community in Scotland.

NHS Health Scotland who have the remit to promote health improvement are reviewing all materials and resources they publish, including their health promotion material, over the next six to twelve months to ensure ethnic and cultural factors associated with health and health care are considered.

In addition, NHS Scotland introduced the Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment Toolkit for both the Health Department and NHS Scotland in March 2005. The toolkit is intended to support consideration of equality and diversity issues in the design, development and delivery of policies and services across NHS Scotland which includes health education schemes.

Of the 22 recommendations, most are for NHS 24 and the area NHS boards to progress, while some are for the health department. Work on a number of them has already begun. I expect the recommendations to be taken forward in partnership wherever that is appropriate and I also expect them to be delivered within the deadlines where these have been set. Progress will be monitored closely and shall be reported to me on a quarterly basis.

The priority for NHS 24 and all area NHS boards at the moment is to develop robust plans to deal with the expected winter demands on out of hours services. This addresses the first recommendation in the report.

The Care Commission regulates and monitors standards within care homes, day care services and care at home services for the elderly, including those with mental health problems.

The NHS Health Scotland’s Later Life Programme and the Scottish Executive National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being are also working together to promote mental health and well-being in later life.

We will continue to work with the partner agencies to ensure that approaches to mental health awareness, prevention, protection and care extend to all ages.

This is a matter for Scottish Water. I have forwarded your inquiry to Scottish Waters Chief Executive and asked him to write to you.

This is a matter for Scottish Water. I have forwarded your inquiry to Scottish Waters Chief Executive and asked him to write to you.

The working group reported back to the bill team in June 2005. Officials are considering how to take it forward. The bill currently in preparation will introduce wide ranging reforms to the legislation affecting these areas. It is necessary to consider what impact these reforms will have before deciding whether it is appropriate to introduce further reforms which have the potential to markedly increase the numbers of Scottish sequestrations.

The group’s recommendations propose extensive reform of debtor access to sequestration. A bill is currently in preparation which will introduce wide ranging reforms to the legislation affecting these areas. It is necessary to consider what impact these reforms will have before deciding whether it is appropriate to introduce further reforms which have the potential to markedly increase the numbers of Scottish sequestrations.