Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-392. 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/search_wa.

We understand the Church of Scotland is considering the future of its care homes and no decision has yet been made on closures. Local authorities are required to ensure that appropriate care is provided for older people in their areas.

The decision to locate the customer management centre at Fairmilehead, Edinburgh was an operational decision for Scottish Water. This decision is part of a much larger reorganisation which will see Scottish Water consolidating services in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh.

Scottish Executive and COSLA officials meet regularly with Church of Scotland representatives to discuss a wide range of issues. The last such meeting was on 27 May and another meeting will be held after the Church's review of services for the elderly is published.

I understand the society has taken certain actions towards improving its financial position and will be considering the results of these actions shortly. The society has not made any application to the Executive for financial assistance. It is not known whether any applications have been made to local authorities.

The society has not sought a meeting with the Executive.

The Executive has no such plans.

The Scottish Executive is committing record levels of investment in the NHS, ensuring that NHS boards have sufficient funds to meet local health care needs in line with the priorities set out in out in Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change and our recently introduced white paper, Partnership for Care. This substantial investment will continue to rise by over 5% a year in real terms over the next three years. Generic clinical standards already require NHS boards to have information strategies in place which meet the needs of patients, relatives and carers. The introduction of Carer Information Strategies will seek to enhance that existing work.

A key principle of the "Fair for All" approach is that the distinctive health needs of individuals and family groups from ethnic minority communities should be met and funded by culturally competent mainstream services. The Scottish Executive provided funding of £1.1 million over three years to establish an ethnic minority resource centre to support and monitor the local delivery of the "Fair for All" approach.In this European Year of Disabled People, the health white paper, Partnership for Care acknowledged the success of the "Fair for All" approach by extending to other potentially excluded groups the principle that mainstream services should recognise and respond sensitively to the distinctive individual needs, background and circumstances of people's lives. We have already agreed a strategic partnership with the Disability Rights Commission and will shortly begin a stocktake exercise to establish what additional support local services require to deliver this commitment.

Free personal care has been in place since 1 July 2002.The evidence is that implementation is progressing well and the Executive would regard the policy as a success.