Chamber and committees

Alcohol education forms part of health education in schools, specifically within drug education. Guidelines already exist in the form of 5-14 Health Education Guidelines which were published in October 2000, together with a Guide for Teachers and Managers. These offer a framework within which education authorities should develop their health education programmes including alcohol education.The 2001-02 drug education survey published in October 2002 indicted that 99% of Scottish schools provide alcohol education.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Consideration is being given to funding a range of initiatives as part of the spending review, the outcome of which will be announced later this year.

The Executive is currently reviewing the How much is too much? campaign following completion of the first phase last year.Learning from this review will be used to take forward a communications campaign which will seek to integrate core national messages with local priorities identified by Alcohol Action Teams.

The Plan for Action on alcohol problems, published in January last year, sets out a range of measures to reduce alcohol-related harm in Scotland. Action is grouped into the areas of culture change, prevention and education, providing support and treatment services, protection and controls for individuals and the wider community and delivery. The two key priorities of the plan are to reduce binge drinking and reduce harmful drinking by children and young people.In September last year we published an Alcohol Problems Support and Treatment Services Framework to provide guidance to those involved in planning, commissioning and managing services. This identified a range of ways in which services could respond to specific and more general needs.

The Executive provides core funding for Alcohol Focus Scotland to support Local Councils on Alcohol provide individual counselling and support for people with alcohol problems. Section 9 funding is also provided as a contribution to training costs.

Recruitment policies are matters for the relevant NHS bodies, in this case NHS Argyll and Clyde, who must satisfy themselves that practice is consistent with current employment legislation. The Health Department is not aware of any conflict between recruitment policies operated locally by the NHS in Argyll and Clyde and the legislation. The new interim management team, whose appointment to NHS Argyll and Clyde I announced on 17 December, will review approaches to staff recruitment and retention across the board area.

Allocations are made to NHS boards and not the individual trusts. Argyll and Clyde Health Board received the following allocations:

Financial Year	Allocation Received(£000)
1999-2000	396,906
2000-01	430,583
2001-02	456,986
2002-03*	475,936

Note:*Not full year allocation (to October 2002).The distribution of these funds between the trusts is a matter for the board and trusts to negotiate.However, the following data has been extracted from the board accounts:

	Argyll and Clyde Acute(£000)	Lomond and Argyll PCT(£000)	Renfrewshire and Inverclyde PCT(£000)	Trust Total(£000)
2001-02	142,489	87,165	151,527	381,181
2002-03	148,866	90,664	158,099	397,629

I know that recruitment and retention of skilled staff is a major issue for NHS Argyll and Clyde, as elsewhere in NHSScotland. The new interim management team, whose appointment I announced on 17 December, will review staff recruitment and retention among other important matters.

The review is now complete and the report is being published today. The key recommendations of the report are as follows:1.1 Focus on users and carers. The report makes two recommendations to improve the representation of views from users and carers to the commission and one to improve information and guidance from the commission to users and carers.1.2 Operations, efficiency and review. The report makes two recommendations to support current action to improve processes and one to provide a better focus for on-going review of the organisation by commissioners. 1.3 Staffing, skills and staff appraisal. The report recommends a senior management structure which continues the post of director or chief officer as the chief professional and policy adviser and responsible officer in the commission. To support the chief officer, a new administrative post of business manager is proposed with a standing delegation for all management matters. The report also recommends that the appraisal process for all commissioners is made consistent; that the pay of professional staff remains linked to that of their respective peers; that skills shortages in internal finance and in medical practice are addressed, and that action is taken to further improve the operation of secondments and the motivation and management of seconded administrative staff. 1.4 External environment and partnership working. The report makes three recommendations to support improved partnership working in future. 1.5 Transitional arrangements. The report suggests an amended pattern of committee responsibilities and meetings to involve and use the specialist knowledge of part-time commissioners better, and also suggests some priorities for current planning for change within the commission.The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland have seen the report and in general accept the recommendations. The Scottish Executive will now work with the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to ensure effective implementation.A copy of the report has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 25847) and is available on the Scottish Executive and Mental Welfare Commission websites.