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-27055

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it plans to have with the City of Edinburgh Council concerning the council’s decision to suspend all approvals of pending direct payments for an indefinite period.

Question reference: S3W-27053

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council in 2009 to identify any particular local obstacles preventing a more radical increase in the uptake of self-directed support, including consideration of the support mechanisms available to those accessing self-directed support.

Question reference: S3W-27054

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the City of Edinburgh Council concerning the council’s decision to suspend all approvals of pending direct payments for an indefinite period.

I understand that Edinburgh City Council has not suspended all approvals for an indefinite period. I believe the council is taking a sensible approach that ensures that their self-directed support clients are effectively supported. It is important that they ensure that resources are released from elsewhere to meet demand in a sustainable way. However, I encourage Edinburgh City Council to resolve this as quickly and effectively as possible.

Question reference: S3W-27052

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what grounds local authorities have for refusing to approve direct payments where applicants’ existing services are being retendered, the individuals have the capacity to consent and sufficient resources are available for such direct payments.

Question reference: S3W-27070

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what support is being given to local authorities and NHS boards to continue the funding of preventative services for people with learning disabilities and their carers, given the emphasis on critical and substantial risk in the draft national eligibility criteria for adult social care and waiting times for personal and nursing care.

The Scottish Government is producing guidance for local statutory organisations to support them in developing plans for learning disability services based on outcomes for service users. The guidance will support the role of anticipatory and preventative services in delivering quality of life outcomes for people with learning disabilities. This will be issued in October.

Self directed support is one route for accessing preventative support. We are funding three Self Directed Support Local Authority test site areas and a project within NHS Lothian that are investigating preventive interventions with service users, including people with learning disabilities.

In addition the Scottish Government has provided funding to the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability for a Local Area Co-ordinator national development worker. The national development worker will work to promote the local area co-ordinator role to support individuals with learning disabilities and their families and to strengthen communities'' capacity to be inclusive.

With regards to the draft national criteria I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27069 on 17 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Question reference: S3W-27071

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider reconfiguring the draft national eligibility criteria for adult social care and waiting times for personal and nursing care following the consultation period to take into account recent policy directions such as the National Guidance on Self-Directed Support and the recommendations from Changing Lives.

Question reference: S3W-27120

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider including in the national eligibility criteria for adult social care and waiting times specific information reminding local authorities of their duty under section 25 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 to provide care and support services and services that promote wellbeing and social development.

Question reference: S3W-27069

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the draft guidance on the national eligibility criteria for adult social care and waiting times for personal and nursing care will adversely impact on preventative services for disabled adults.

Draft guidance on a national framework for access and entitlement to services for all adult social care groups was issued to local authorities and key stakeholders for consultation on 26 May. Of the 43 responses to the consultation almost 75% raised concerns about the impact of applying an eligibility framework on preventative services, particularly for adults with disabilities. The Scottish Government and COSLA are therefore proposing that the eligibility framework and waiting time targets should apply to older people in the first instance. We recognise that preventative services are also important for older people and work will be undertaken to explore this issue in greater detail as part of our efforts to re-shape older people''s care into the future.

The Scottish Government is currently developing guidance for local health and social care partnerships on measuring outcomes for people with learning disabilities to inform the planning and delivery of services. This will be issued in October.

Both of these guidance documents will promote wellbeing and independent living.

Question reference: S3O-07853

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 17 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions the Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution has had with the organisers of major cultural events regarding the need to reduce carbon emissions in organising such events.

Question reference: S3W-26913

Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 03 September 2009
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2009

To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason the Scottish Government’s and COSLA’s consultation on the draft national eligibility criteria for adult social care and waiting times for personal and nursing care gave consultees only six weeks in which to respond; when it will publish the responses to the consultation; when it will publish any decisions taken following consideration of the responses; whether it will prepare separate guidance to address the specific needs of people with learning disabilities, and what organisations and individuals make up the national working party established to take the issue forward.

The process of drafting comprehensive and clear guidance on a national framework for access and entitlement to services has been complex and time consuming. Draft guidance was issued to local authorities and key stakeholders on 26 May. To meet the agreed implementation date of 1 December 2009 it was necessary for comments to be submitted by 17 July; that allowed almost eight weeks consideration by those consulted. The responses to the consultation are currently being considered and will be published on the Scottish Government web pages by the end of September. The Scottish Government and COSLA will jointly issue the final guidance to the same timescale.

The membership of the Access and Entitlement to Services Working Group is:

Laura Bannerman, Association of Directors of Social Work (Chair)

Mike Brown, Association of Directors of Social Work

Ron Culley, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

Jim Pearson, Community Care Providers Scotland

Kirsty McGrath, Scottish Government

Peter Knight, Scottish Government

Jane Arroll, Scottish Government

Gillian Barclay, Scottish Government

Shaun Eales, Scottish Government

Jenny Stevenson, Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government is also developing guidance for local health and social care partnerships on measuring outcomes for people with learning disabilities to inform the planning and delivery of services. This will be issued in October.