Chamber and committees

The provision of services tomeet the housing needs of survivors of sexual abuse is the responsibility of localgovernment to be drawn from the local government settlement of £34.7 billion overthree years.

The current membership of theWheelchair and Seating Services Project Board (WSSPB) is as follows:

Richard Carey: Chief Executive - NHS Grampian (ProjectBoard Chair)

Geoff Bardsley: Consultant ClinicalScientist – Head of Service, Tayside Orthopaedic Rehabilitation Technology (TORT)Centre

Ruth Cleland: Head of Internal Communications - NHS Highland

John Colvin: Head of Service- West of Scotland Mobility and Rehabilitation Centre (WESTMARC)

Janet Garcia: Wheelchair andSeating Services Project Manager - Scottish Government Healthcare Policy and StrategyDirectorate

Anne Harkness: Director of Rehabilitationand Assessment - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Liz Rowlett: Policy, Informationand Parliamentary Officer - Scottish Disability Equality Forum and Carer Representative

Sylvia Shearer: Head of Branch,Blood and Rehabilitation Equipment - Scottish Government Healthcare Policy and StrategyDirectorate

Ron Skinner: Service User Representative

Roseanne Urquhart: Head of HealthcareStrategy - NHS Highland

Chair, Rehabilitation TechnologyServices Advisory Group.

At the second meeting of theWSSPB on 19 November 2007, it was agreed that the board should also include a localauthority representative. Officials have invited COSLA to nominate a representative.

The project board may also inviteexperts to inform the board on an ad hoc basis as it considers appropriate.

The provision of these servicesis the responsibility of each NHS board and local authority from the resources providedover the three year spending review period.

The Scottish Government is providingfunding of £1 million each year in 2007-08 and 2008-09 through the National Strategyfor Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse to help address the needs of adultsurvivors of childhood sexual abuse. £1.7 million of this has been allocated to25 statutory and voluntary organisations to develop a wide range of services forsurvivors, including preventative work, support and counselling for male survivorsand homeless young women. Further details can be found at www.survivorscotland.org.uk.

The overarching aim of the strategyis to increase knowledge of issues faced by survivors and to improve informationand access to appropriate health and social care services. It is hoped that increasedawareness can lead to earlier intervention resulting in a lesser burden on primaryand mental health services.

Spending to meet the health needsof survivors of childhood sexual abuse is a matter for NHS boards within the frameworkof the Action Plan Better Health, Better Care. This aims to improveboth access to, and the purchase of, quality of health care for all people in Scotland.

Service providers are alreadyconsidering and implementing a number of the recommendations of the independentWheelchair and Seating Services Review including:

the introduction of satelliteclinics in the West of Scotland and in Tayside (recommendation 4);

the introduction of self-referralby all five wheelchair and seating centres, to enable users to have their equipmentrequirements reviewed  (recommendation 8);

the introduction of patient informationthat sets out the purpose of assessment, how to get equipment maintenance, and howto report any problems by NHS Lothian, Adult Service (recommendation 13), and

the introduction of planned preventativemaintenance in NHS Highland and in the West of Scotland for powered chairs (recommendation32).

I expect the service providersto continue to consider and implement recommendations as far as possible ahead of the action plan.

The Wheelchair and Seating ServicesProject Board meets quarterly. The chair can also call extraordinary meetings atany time if deemed necessary.

The project manager was appointedwith effect from 22 October 2007 on a full-time basis for an initial period of three years.

The following meetings were heldin local communities between August and December 2007 to discuss antisocialbehaviour:

10 August 2007 – Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, heldmeetings with Fife Community Safety Partnership and Fife Police in Glenrothes andKirkcaldy to discuss community safety issues, including antisocial behaviour.

13 August 2007 - Officials andnational co-ordinators from the Scottish Government Community Safety Unit and YouthJustice met with Renfrewshire Local Authority to identify good practice in dealingwith youth justice, community safety and antisocial behaviour and assess the potentialfor these approaches to be used in other local authority areas.

28 August 2007 - Officials andnational co-ordinators from the Scottish Government Community Safety Unit and YouthJustice met with South Ayrshire Local Authority to identify good practice in dealingwith youth justice, community safety and antisocial behaviour and assess the potentialfor these approaches to be used in other local authority areas.

12 September 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, and officialsvisited Port Glasgow to launch Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland’s Public ReassuranceStrategy.

2 October 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, and officialsvisited NCH Scotland, Perth, to officially open the Perth, Falkirk and SouthLanarkshire Breaking the Cycle Intensive Family Support demonstration projects.

4 October 2007 - Officials andnational co-ordinators from the Scottish Government Community Safety Unit and YouthJustice met with East Ayrshire Local Authority to identify good practice in dealingwith youth justice, community safety and antisocial behaviour and assess the potentialfor these approaches to be used in other local authority areas.

17 October 2007 – Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, andofficials visited Glasgow for the launch of Fixed Penalty Notices for minor antisocialoffences by Strathclyde Police.

25 October 2007 –Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, and officials, visited the City ofEdinburgh Council Early Intervention Case Management Project to mark publicationof the Terms of Reference for the review of the national antisocial behaviour strategy,three related research reports and relevant statistics.

6 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety and his officials, FergusEwing met with Michael Matheson MSP and Annette Holmes of the Falkirk Car Cruisers’Committee to discuss antisocial driving and seizure of vehicle powers being consideredas part of the review of the national antisocial behaviour strategy.

6 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing and hisofficials, met with Mr Matheson and Central Scotland Police, including Chief ConstableAndrew Cameron, to discuss antisocial driving and seizure of vehicle powers.

6 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, visitedLarbert Fire Station, Larbert.

13 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, visitedNorth Ayrshire to meet the North Ayrshire Community Forum and hold a public forumat Radio City, both with discussion on the antisocial behaviour strategyreview.

14 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety and officials attendedthe Community Wardens Conference, Dunblane.

24 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, and officials visited the Scottish Business Crime Centre in Stirling to launch the ACPOS Crime Prevention Strategy.

29 November 2007 – Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, deliveredkeynote address and took questions at the Scottish Community Safety Network Chairs’and Managers’ meeting in Edinburgh.

It is not routine practice forthe Scottish Government to take or publish full transcripts of meetings in localcommunities. However, notes of the outcome or action points from such meetings willbe provided on request where available and appropriate, in accordance with Freedomof Information legislation.

NHS Wheelchair and Seating servicesprovide wheelchairs to those with impaired mobility arising from clinical conditions.However, wheelchair provision also includes input and interventions from a broadspectrum of agencies such as social care, housing and education services in additionto health. To successfully address the issues raised by the review, engagement withand agreement from all agencies in taking forward proposed actions is essential.The patient focussed approachis central to the development of redesigned services to address the recommendationsfrom the review and continue the elimination of excess waits. Some of the improvementsalready underway are referred to in the answer to question S3W-7724 on 16 January 2008. Allanswers 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/wa.search.

The project team will assessthe recommendations from the review as part of the development of an action planand ensure that changes proposed are evidence based and cost effective to NHS Scotlandand its partners.

Producing a fully costed, robustand realistic action plan that will underpin the provision of modern and sustainableNHS wheelchair and seating services in Scotland will require until December 2008. This time period includes12 weeks for public consultation on the draft action plan prior to finalisation.

I have asked James Hynd, ActingChief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

Dumfries and Galloway Council and Shetland Islands Council haveboth indicated that pressure of work has prevented the submission of their StrategicHousing Investment Plans.