Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is determined to support all students, and in particular, those who are battling serious and complex long-term health conditions including cancer.

In general, access to further and higher education in Scotland is a competitive process where applicants need to be able to demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit from the opportunities that are on offer. In that context, there is a need to give due consideration to circumstances that may have affected a student’s attainment. Universities and colleges will make allowances when deciding admissions if prior performance has been impeded due to illness or a long-term health condition. Beyond that, and in terms of support once a student has been accepted, please refer to the response to S4W-17036 on 24 September 2013.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

All children access speech and language therapy services in the same way irrespective of whether they have been diagnosed with a neurological condition.

Action 4.1 of the Allied Health Professions National Delivery Plan, published in 2012, specifically focuses on the development of a transformational children and young people’s service plan to meet the evolving needs of this care group. This plan will address the need for a national, sustainable model that reflects the early years agenda and the moves towards integration and will include services for children with neurological conditions.

The Scottish Government has no plans to review elements of the current NHS executive and senior management pay arrangements. I have indicated that I would be interested in hearing views on how these arrangements might evolve in the future as we move towards our 2020 vision for an integrated health workforce.

Details of the 2013-14 pay settlement for NHS executive and senior managers will be announced in a forthcoming pay circular. This will be entirely consistent with Scottish Government Pay Policy for 2013-14.

There are 916 whole time equivalent staff in the executive and senior management cohorts. These employees have been subject to a complete pay freeze of up to four years. Details of the 2013-14 pay settlement covering this group will be announced in a forthcoming pay circular.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all young people with a disability, a long term health condition or an additional support need are supported as they access and maintain employment and training opportunities. This is done through a number strategic documents and through institutional and targeted student support some of which I have detailed.

Strategic Guidance:

The Scottish Government document Opportunities for All Supporting all young people to participate in post-16 learning, training or work sets out the roles and responsibilities for all partners involved in the delivery of learning and training for young people. It details the multi-agency approach required to appropriately plan for a young person to move through learning and training and into work. Ensuring that every transition the young person makes is supported by the most appropriate partner.

The Scottish Government document “Partnership Matters” describes the roles and responsibilities of health boards, local authority social work departments, the College/University and others. It describes how they should come together and work in partnership to enable students with such conditions to access college or university and be supported during their studies.

Institutional and Targeted Support:

Much of the support in this area is provided by the third sector, supported in large part through Scottish Government funding. The third sector plays a critical role in supporting disabled people and people who live with long term conditions to access and maintain employment and training opportunities. A whole range of third sector organisations offer employment support, for example:

Community Jobs Scotland, which is delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, provides support to unemployed young people into work and training opportunities across the third sector. Participants receive at least the minimum wage to undertake job related training for a minimum of six months in the third sector and additional training tailored to help them enhance their general employability. This programme is now entering its third year with a total investment to date of £29 million.

Momentum delivers a range of programmes supporting people with acquired brain injuries and other disabled people and people who live with long term conditions to gain employment for the first time and assist disabled people and ensure people can realise their goals and achieve their potential.

SITE (Supported Integration Training and Employment) provide training and support to people affected by sight loss.

Work4ME is a social enterprise championing self-employment for people with long term conditions and offer a range of services to support people in self-employment.

Targeted Employer Recruitment Incentive, is a £1.5 million investment by the Scottish Government over three years which seeks to encourage employers to assist the transition of young people with complex needs into sustainable employment. The eligibility criteria for this incentive has been extended to enable more young people to be supported and the Scottish Government has invested a further £500k to do this.

Self-Management Fund:

Self-management plays an important role in supporting disabled people and people who live with long term conditions to access and maintain employment and training opportunities. The Self-Management Fund, available to third sector organisations throughout Scotland since March 2009, aims to build the capacity of people with long term conditions to effectively self-manage.

Since 2009, the Scottish Government’s Self-Management Fund, delivered by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, has supported a number of projects focussed specifically on employability for instance.

SKS Scotland explored models of employment that reduce the likelihood of people living with M.E. having to give up work. This involved a two part action research project which aims to discover the barriers and enablers for effective self management in the workplace. SKS Scotland also trialed a flexible model of employment, which the organisation believes allowing for self-management within the modern workplace.

Using the Supported Employment model, Intowork West Lothian assisted disabled people and people who live with long term conditions who are significantly distanced from the labour market to move into employment, or to offer support to individuals who become ill whilst in employment.

Aberdeen Foyer is currently working with people to develop and pilot a programme for people living with mental health conditions to support self management and employability.

Scotland-wide organisations such as Macmillan, along with local groups such as Ayrshire Cancer Support, provide a wide range of support that enables people living with cancer to continue to live their daily lives. For many people maintaining or accessing employment is a key part of this.

Since 2011, The Scottish Government has supported a 3-year project by Macmillan Cancer in partnership with Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) Health Board Acute Services Vocational Rehabilitation and Employability Steering Group. This group is currently working with Macmillan Cancer to progress an innovative and large scale service development within NHS GGC acute services for patients affected by cancer and a range of other long term conditions. The service development is aimed at implementing a sustainable approach to supporting these patient groups to access, return to and stay in employment.

The Scottish Government’s equality unit currently funds the My Strengths, My Skills, My Right to Work programme that seeks to: improve access to the labour market for people with long term conditions; increase capacity among young people living with long term conditions to access and maintain jobs; and increase awareness and practical understanding among employers of how people can be supported to manage their condition and maintain their employment.

The Scottish Government is committed to the support already in place and will continue to prioritise supporting young people into employment and training, especially those with serious health conditions and those furthest from the labour market.

Application of the criteria for regional selective assistance are an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. We will ask the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to write to you on this matter.

Checks on the proper application of regional selective assistance are an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. We will ask the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to write to you on this matter.

Annex A of the Draft Budget 2014-15 sets out how the Scottish Government is monitoring the long term investment commitments to manage within 5% of our expected future annual total DEL budget. As stated there, the assessment includes only those elements that impact on Scottish Government budgets, not those met from other public bodies’ own resources. For local authority contracts, where the costs are shared between the Scottish Government and local authorities, only the Scottish Government share is included.