Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that patients who wish to have access to NHS dental services are able to do so, regardless of geography.

Considerable progress has been made by boards with regard to access to an NHS dentist in rural areas. The following table shows the proportion of people registered with a NHS dentist in September 2014 (the latest figures available), compared with September 2007, for a number of rural board areas:

Source: Information Services Division, MIDAS, November 2014

Independent Dentists:

A number of specific incentives are available to independent dentists wishing to provide NHS General Dental Services (GDS) in remote and rural communities, and islands.

The Scottish Government funds a programme of Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) grants in designated areas that have been identified by each NHS board as having unmet patient demand. SDAI grants provide funding support to dentists to establish new, expand or purchase existing NHS dental practices.

The list of designated areas that qualify for SDAI support are reviewed, in conjunction with boards, on a regular basis; in the case of NHS Highland, SDAI grants are presently available in Islay.

Independent dentists who provide GDS from a remote or rural location also benefit from a Remote Areas Allowance. A dentist who provides NHS GDS in an island location, or in an area which has less than 0.5 persons per hectare, can be eligible for payments of up to £9,000 per annum.

Public Dental Services:

The Public Dental Service (PDS) is also available to NHS boards to provide NHS GDS to people who cannot access care from independent dentists. The Scottish Government works closely with NHS boards in remote and rural areas on dental provision. Where the provision of routine care from independent dentists has been exhausted, the Scottish Government continues to fund an effective PDS for people without access to NHS dental treatment.

In the overwhelming majority of remote, rural, and island communities the level of provision is sufficient.

Where additional capacity is required, boards can make necessary arrangements to ensure that the level of provision is adequate.

I am pleased to announce that funding amounting to a total of £457,207 will be provided to the 15 organisations from our small grants programme 2015-16 for projects to commence in April 2014.

Total amount of recommended funding – programme year 2015-16

Recommendations for funding after assessment by country and grant type – programme year 2015-16

The small grants programme 2015-16 attracted 21 applications before the deadline on 26 November 2015. One application was received after the closing date which was not assessed due to its lateness and not meeting our criteria. A further two applications were rejected as outwith our eligibility criteria, and therefore were not part of the full assessment process. One application was withdrawn prior to assessment. The remaining 18 applications were fully assessed, three of which did not meet our assessment criteria and were therefore not awarded funding.

The full list of the projects to be funded is available on the following web link:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/International/int-dev/smallgrants

The Scottish Government is committed to developing self-directed support as a way of giving individuals and their families flexibility, choice and control over the support services they receive. The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 gives people a range of options for how their social care is delivered and places firm duties on local authorities to give people informed choice as to how they will receive their support.

The Scottish Government has invested £28.52 million between 20110-12 and 2015-16 in service transformation within local authorities to enable individuals to direct their own support. A requirement of this funding is that local authorities work closely with users, carers, providers and wider communities to plan, agree and implement local strategies to support self-directed support. It is vital that the approach is co-produced. The Scottish Government recognise co-creation of local delivery is a major strategic challenge that will take time to establish.

Allocation of the transformation funding is at the discretion of local authorities. Some local authorities have funded user and carer engagement activity to build their capacity and skills to engage with local council self-directed support strategies.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing self-directed support as a way of giving individuals and their families, flexibility, choice and control over the support services they receive. The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 gives people a range of options for how their social care is delivered and places firm duties on local authorities to give people informed choice as to how they will receive their support.

The self-directed support statutory guidance provides a general steer to local authorities and states that they should consider their strategy for investing in preventative and universal services - interventions which prevent or delay the need for formal social care and support.

Whilst each individual local authority holds the responsibility for allocation of their funding, the National Self-directed Support Strategy requires that:

Councils should invest an appropriate amount of funding in effective preventative and universal services.

Services should meet the needs of funded clients and the wider population, thus helping to prevent the escalation of needs.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing self-directed support as a way of giving individuals and their families, flexibility, choice and control over the support services they receive. The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 gives people a range of options for how their social care is delivered and places firm duties on local authorities to give people informed choice as to how they will receive their support.

In order to aid the successful implementation of self-directed support the Scottish Government have provided significant investment of £6.3 million over four years from 2011-12 to 2014-15 to third and independent sector providers of social care, helping them to build capacity for self-directed support. This includes providers in rural areas. Further funding of £1.1 million for the financial year 2015-16 has been confirmed and we are currently in the process of assessing funding bids from a number of providers.

In addition to this the Scottish Government currently funds two umbrella bodies to provide on-going support, advice and assistance to both providers and support and information organisations throughout Scotland. Self Directed Support Scotland receive core funding to work closely with support and information organisations and The Coalition of Care and Support Providers Scotland receive core funding to engage with provider organisations. Both umbrella bodies provide an extremely worthwhile service supporting these organisations running regular information sessions and training workshops. They are also key stakeholders of the policy team and are pro-active members of a number of working groups aiming to aid the successful implementation of the self-directed support policy.

Scottish Ministers confirmed in September 2012 they had looked closely at the options available to drive up ferry service standards across the Clyde and Hebrides routes. There was no compelling case to unbundle the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services. Where enterprises consider that they can provide a local service meeting the quality requirements of the contract they can form part of a consortium in response to the contract notice or seek to enter a subcontract with an operator who has been selected to tender.

The Scottish Government is awaiting finalised advice from the Joint Nature Conservancy Council and Scottish Natural Heritage on possible locations that may warrant consideration for designation as special areas of conservation for harbour porpoise in the waters around Scotland.

The Scottish Government is currently exploring the application of pension conditions in the next contract. Scheme liabilities will be a matter for the trustees and subject to the scheme rules and relevant pensions regulatory provisions.