Chamber and committees

Thisgovernment believes that asylum seeker children have the same rights as otherchildren. Ministers are currently examining what the Scottish government can doto ensure that the welfare and needs of asylum seeker children are paramount.

The details of the March 2006 agreement with the Home Office were included in a Home Officepress release in March 2006. They are as follows:

theintroduction of enhanced criminal record checks for front-line immigrationenforcement staff working across the UK;

thecreation of a new post of Regional Director for Immigration in Scotland, withresponsibility for co-ordinating and managing immigration arrangements inScotland as part of a broader UK development;

increasingthe numbers of failed asylum seekers who leave the UK voluntarily through theenhanced voluntary returns package;

aprovision in the Police and Justice Bill for the independent inspection of theimmigration service, and

areview of family removals processes by the Home Office.

workingwith the Scottish Executive on using the concept of a lead professional whotakes responsibility for coordinating information from various health,education, police and social care representatives, which can then be providedto the Immigration Service to help it take informed decisions on the managementand timing of the removal of failed asylum seeking families with children, and

the introduction ofnew arrangements to handle complaints against immigration officers throughoutthe UK.

I understand thatthe HMIE inspection Report will be published shortly. As well as submitting thereport to Ministers, HMIE will send copies of the report to Members of theEducation, Lifelong Learning and Culture; Justice; Local Government and Communities;Health and Sport and Equal Opportunities Committees.

We will hold theBorder and Immigration Agency (BIA) to account for each and every element ofthat agreement, and will press for further progress where that it is requiredto advance and promote the interests of children, families and communities inScotland affected by these issues.

Responsibilityfor delivery of the outstanding strands of the agreement lies mainly with BIAand limited progress has been made since the previous administration reportedto Parliament in March of this year.

For example, thelead professional arrangements will not begin until the BIA “case resolution”review of legacy cases starts, which is expected to be in September. We willcontinue to work with BIA and Glasgow City Council to ensure the arrangementsoperate smoothly from the start.

We will report toParliament when key measures such as the enhanced background checking of allstaff involved in family removals and the legislation to permit inspection of the removal process have been fully implemented.

The abusesuffered by children and young people in Kerelaw over such a lengthy periodshould not have happened and the Government is determined to learn the lessonsfrom this dreadful situation.

I have taken thefollowing actions to respond to the Glasgow review ofits management of Kerelaw School.

A letter will beissued this week to all providers of residential care, local authorities andindependent bodies, reminding them of their obligations, both for theprotection of children in their care and for the provision of effectivemeasures to enable children to make complaints safely.

Local authoritieswill also be reminded of their responsibilities as corporate parent to ensurethat the children who they place in these establishments are cared for andsupported effectively and that children feel safe to report any concerns.Similarly, in their role as commissioners of residential services, they will bereminded of their responsibility to satisfy themselves fully that theestablishments where they place children are safe.

I will meet withGlasgow City Council to discuss its report in more detail.

I will write toall regulatory bodies asking them to identify what further measures they needto put in place to ensure that the current inspection and regulatory regime canidentify and respond to concerns of abuse quickly.

I will meet withresidential providers, the Association of Directorsof Social Work and others to identify what further improvements may beneeded to protect children from abuse in residential care.

In addition tothese measures, by September 2007 I will have received the independent reportof the in-care historic abuse systemic review 1950-95. I will then considerwhat further action is required to ensure a comprehensive approach.

The Scottishgovernment will be examining all funding as part of the forthcoming spendingreview process. This includes the Community Regeneration Fund and others fundsaimed at tackling poverty and disadvantage.

The Scottishgovernment provides a number of funds which support what might be called “communityinvestment” around Scotland. The largest of these is the CommunityRegeneration Fund, £108 million in 2007-08, which is allocated to CommunityPlanning Partnerships (CPP). Eachpartnership appoints an “accountable body” to receive the grant and ensure thatfunding is used in line with the terms and conditions. These are available at: http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webgraphics/finalcrftermsandconditions.pdf.

A national Performance Management Framework (PMF)provides the basis for monitoring and auditing success against each CPP’sRegeneration Outcome Agreement. These agreements set out how the CRF, otherrelevant funding streams and the related resources of partners will be used toachieve specific outcome targets for the most disadvantaged communities. Thecore element of the PMF is an annual report from each CPP focusing on outcomes,key performance indicators, equalities information and community engagement. Acopy of the PMF is available at

http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/cs_010595.hcsp#TopOfPage.

More broadly, Audit Scotland ensures that all organisations who spend public money in Scotland use it properly, efficiently and effectively. Itdoes this by carrying out financial audits which check how local authoritiesand public bodies manage their finances and funding programmes to the higheststandards and how they achieve the best possible value for public money. Inaddition, a rolling programme of Best Value audits ensure that the duty oflocal authorities to secure continuous improvement, which is set out in theLocal Government in Scotland Act 2003, is monitored and reported on.

If the memberwishes more detailed or specific information on particular funding streams Iwould be happy to provide it.

Deafblind Scotland continues to receive core funding under section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act. Funding under section 9 of that actfor innovative training was provided for three years for the period from 2004-05to 2006-07. Deafblind Scotland is working with the members of the Sensory ImpairmentAction Plan Steering Group to contribute to the development of National OccupationalStandards for social care staff. It is likely that these national standards willinform future training and bids from Deafblind Scotland for further training of social care staff will be considered alongside allother bids.

Stewart Maxwell and I are currentlymaking arrangements to hold meetings in the very near future with both GHA and otherstakeholders interested in the future of housing in Glasgow.

The Scottish Governmentcontinues to work closely with our partners including Deafblind Scotland, theRoyal National Institute for the Deaf, the Royal National Institute for theBlind and a number of other voluntary organisations to implement therecommendations of the Sensory Impairment Action Plan to improve access to careservices for all people with a sensory impairment in Scotland. As part of thatwork, guidance was issued in April 2007 to local authorities and theirpartners, with specific reference to identifying and meeting the needs ofpeople who are deafblind. Local authorities have been asked to provideinformation about identification, assessment and service provision by 1 September 2007.

The Scottish Government hasno plans for statutory provision of guide communicators. The provision ofappropriate support for all people receiving care services, including guidingand communication support, is a matter for local authorities.