Chamber and committees

Any abstraction from the water environment requires an authorisation from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011. The water abstraction licence currently held by Scottish Water for the public water supply at Aviemore includes a water abstraction figure which has a capacity growth of 4000+ population equivalent. During the determination process for the licence, SEPA assessed the risk posed by the Scottish Water application to the water environment, including any potential effect on salmon and freshwater pearl mussels, and it was concluded that the activity would not have a significant adverse impact.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) has been an independent body since April 2012. These, therefore, are matters for the GTCS.

A full environmental impact assessment has been carried out as part of the Kincraig scheme including habitat surveys. No requirement for a green bridge was identified through that work. The safety of species crossing the road will be enhanced through the provision of upgraded underpasses and dry culverts as part of the scheme, in keeping with the sensitive surrounding landscape.

The most recent information on the number of mental health officers (MHOs) employed in each local authority was published by the Scottish Social Services Council on 29 May 2013 in its Mental Health Officers Report 2012. The report is available online at: http://data.sssc.uk.com/data-publications/23-mental-health-officers-reports/69-2012-mental-health-officers-report. Information on each MHO’s average caseload in not held centrally.

We are working with the Association of Directors of Social Work to develop training materials to support criminal justice social workers to identify offenders with a mental illness who could be subject to a community payback order (CPO) with a mental health condition.

Issues relating to the use of the mental health treatment requirement in the CPO will be considered under the Community Payback Order Project within phase two of the Government’s Reducing Reoffending Programme. Phase two is focused on making sure individuals serving sentences in the community build on the support and services that are available to them, and make the most of the opportunities to fulfil their responsibilities as citizens, and move away from offending.

A process evaluation of how CPOs are operating in practice is also currently underway. It is expected that the final research findings will become available later in 2014.

The Mental Health Strategy sets out activity that will be delivered during the period 2012-15. Implementation of commitments is planned to take place across this period, with some already completed, some underway, and others being delivered later in the strategy’s timescale.

There were 16 MSc in applied psychology for children and young people and 35 clinical trainees aligned to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in training as at 31 December 2013.

In 2013 there were 27 trainees who commenced child psychology courses, with
16 starting MSc in applied psychology for children and young people and 11 clinical trainees aligned to CAMHS.

NHS Education Scotland conduct an annual commissioning process where the needs of individual Health Boards are considered. It is at this time that a decision will be taken on the number of trainees and will be subject to future spending review decisions. There were also five child psychotherapy trainees who commenced their training in October 2013.

The child psychotherapy workforce is currently small and an integral part of training child psychotherapists is ongoing supervision. We have set a limit of 5 to ensure there is sufficient supervision to provide high quality training and ongoing supervision thought the training period.

The Mental Health Strategy sets out activity that will be delivered during the period 2012-2015. Implementation of commitments is planned to take place across this period, with some already completed, some underway, and others being delivered later in the strategy’s timescale.

NHS 24 participated on behalf of Scotland, in a joint bid for the European Commission ICT PSP seventh call for proposals in 2013. A bid was submitted for the ‘Management of Mental Health Disorders Through Advanced technology and Services-Telehealth for the MIND’ project (MASTERMIND).

Mastermind is a project which explores the barriers and facilitators to roll-out computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It looks at the sharing of learning and identification of the factors and best practice required in different cultural and healthcare structures, to replicate this type of intervention more widely in the EU. In this project there are 9 European member states and 14 sites participating.

Funding has been approved for the project and is being finalised. The total value of the project in Scotland is £790,243 of which £395,122 will be funded by the European Commission.

The project will run for a duration of three years, staring in March 2014.

NHS Health Education Scotland are rolling out training in the Solihull Approach. Phase 1 which is due to complete in March 2014 will see 60 Health visitors being trained and with 12 train the trainers training being delivered simultaneously.

Phase 2 of the programme which will take place between April 2104 and March 2015 will see a further 24 trainers being trained giving a total of 36 trainers who will be able to deliver training and support to an estimated 360 cross sectorial staff working in early years on an annual basis.

The Scottish Government has commissioned the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) and Voices of Experience to undertake the review. The MHF research team has been gathering the information required for the first two stages of the review and is beginning to move to the engagement elements of the process which will begin in April 2014.

The review comprises the following stages:

1. A mental health service mapping across all 14 regional NHS boards areas and seven special NHS boards;

2. A literature review to describe how the current mental health system builds on evidence informed practice and innovations;

3. A panel inquiry to gather evidence and expert opinion from five selected NHS Board areas about the local context to mental health service delivery;

4. Interviews with national stakeholders with a particular interest and stake in Scotland’s mental health.

A report of the findings from the review will be published later in 2014.

NHS Health Scotland have been distributing the Steps for Stress resource and keeping the website up to date. The Scottish Government, with NHS Health Scotland, have identified challenges in tracking where Steps for Stress resources are going to and how effective they are in being an early intervention for people with common mental health problems.

NHS Health Scotland has set up a short term working group with representatives from NHS, local authority and voluntary sector. This group is currently looking at issues relating to the distribution, use, effectiveness and measurement of staff confidence in using Steps for Stress. The working group will plan and seek to test out methodologies for future data collection, collation and analysis.

As a first test of data collection, NHS Grampian has agreed to audit Steps for Stress usage via their resources service and to complete a survey, which will gauge how the resource is being presented to patients, what level of confidence staff have in using the resource, awareness of the resource, and where else it could be made available. This data is likely to available during March 2014.

The Mental Health Strategy sets out activity that will be delivered during the period 2012-15. Implementation of commitments is planned to take place across this period, with some already completed, some underway, and others being delivered later in the strategy’s timescale.