Chamber and committees

We recognise the importance of frontline workers in communities, who can readily identify householders who would benefit from help. Home Energy Scotland, funded by Scottish Government, currently undertakes outreach work, providing free training to local partners and raising awareness of the service available. This outreach will increase the provision of advice and support in our communities and enhance the partnership approach to delivering support where it’s needed most.

Home Energy Scotland has also put in place a referral portal that gives our partner organisations a quick and easy way to refer clients and customers to support, including funding to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Training has been put in place to support the range of organisations that have already signed up to use this new tool – including NHS Boards and energy suppliers.

In addition to this, we launched ‘HES Homecare’, delivered by Home Energy Scotland, on 8 March 2017. The service is being piloted in two rural areas and will join up with local services to give targeted and specific in-home support to people who are in the greatest need – helping them to make their homes warmer and cheaper to heat.

The “Evidence Review of the Potential Wider Impacts of Climate Change Mitigation Options: Built Environment Sector” published in 2017 to inform the draft Climate Change Plan http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/01/3358 found evidence that measures to improve the energy efficiency of homes, including by insulating them, can result in benefits to residents’ health, particularly among those living in fuel poverty. Physical health benefits can arise from warmer homes; and mental health benefits can arise from reduced energy bills and hence reduced stress.

In addition, GoWell, funded by Scottish Government, published research “Can housing improvements cure or prevent the onset of health conditions over time in deprived areas?” http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-015-2524-5/fulltext.html in November 2015. This research indicated that receipt of fabric works was associated with higher likelihood of recovery from mental health problems and circulatory conditions. Receipt of central heating was also associated with higher likelihood of recovery form circulatory conditions. The research also noted that health gain from housing improvements appears most likely when targeted at those in greatest health need.

The Fuel Poverty Evidence Review published in 2012 by the Scottish Government examined evidence on the relationship between cold homes and poor health outcomes. It concluded that there was evidence suggesting that there was an association between thermal comfort and mental well-being, particularly among young people and children and that the risk of physical and mental health problems for children increased the longer they lived in cold homes.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) provide guidelines for use in England and Wales.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland has no current plans to adopt the NICE guidance on excess winter deaths and illnesses associated with cold homes.

The Scottish Government’s Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland: Area Based Schemes (HEEPS: ABS) are designed and delivered by local authorities, in conjunction with utility companies and local delivery partners, targeting fuel poor areas to provide energy efficiency measures to a large number of Scottish households and help reduce fuel poverty.

Responsibility for programme delivery falls to local authorities because they are best placed as the relevant strategic housing authority to understand local housing needs and prioritise provision across their area. Local authorities are expected to use a range of sources of information to target households whose properties have the lowest levels of energy efficiency and/or highest levels of fuel poverty. It is up to each local authority to define the areas within which projects will deliver and the detail of those projects.

The basis for distributing HEEPS: ABS funding is agreed with COSLA each year. In the current year all of the available funding for HEEPS: ABS is allocated on the basis of need, which takes into account levels of fuel poverty and reflects the different types of properties within those local areas. When submitting proposals for tackling fuel poverty Councils are asked to set out how these fit with existing national and local strategies, including Local Housing Strategies.

We are also working with local authorities to develop Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme (SEEP), including funding pilot projects to test new and innovative ways to improve the energy efficiency and decarbonise the heat supply of all Scotland’s buildings. And we are consulting on how we might design the detail of the policy and delivery framework, on the role that Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies, and on regulation of district heating. The Scottish Government’s consultation on Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme runs until 30 May 2017 and the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies, and Regulation of District Heating is open until 18 April 2018. A series of workshops and events have been held to support this and numerous local authorities have been involved.

To support the overarching aims set out by indicators in the National Performance Framework, the Housing and Regeneration Outcomes Framework sets out more specific outcomes relating to its policy area. Progress on tackling fuel poverty is included in this: http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/partnerstories/HARO/Indicators

We recognise the value of a locally led, collaborative approach in tackling fuel poverty and it is something we have been supporting through our HEEPS: Area-Based Schemes. We are keen to build on this approach and will work with local authorities, NHS Boards, health and social care partnerships, Community Planning Partnerships and others to explore ways to do so.

 

Representatives from NHS Scotland and the Scottish Public Health Network are members of the Fuel Poverty Forum and we will work with them to build on existing and, if necessary, develop new local partnerships alongside wider joined-up approaches. This will build on the progress already made, in particular with NHS Health Scotland who, in response to our Fairer Scotland Action Plan, has recently pledged to work in partnership with NHS Boards to develop national referral pathways between NHS services and local advice services to maximise the incomes of patients.

Supporting economic growth by tackling inequality is a key driver of devolved employment support. This aligns to our child poverty strategy, in particular our ambitions to maximise the potential for parents to increase family incomes through good quality, sustained employment and to break inter-generational cycles of poverty, inequality and deprivation.

A number of groups will have early access to Fair Start Scotland, which will commence in April 2018, including unemployed lone parents and those living in the 15% most disadvantaged areas. The pricing model for Fair Start Scotland is weighted towards job outcomes sustained for 12 months, emphasising our ambitions to help move those who participate in the service into permanent employment, rather than temporary job opportunities.

Further, in bidding to deliver Fair Start Scotland, which will commence in April 2018, Service Providers have been asked to demonstrate clearly how they will deliver support that reflects the needs of all customers, including women seeking employment. They will be expected use levers at their disposal to encourage employers to consider flexible working approaches, which enable more women to take up sustainable jobs that meet their needs, for example, to align with caring responsibilities.

The Scottish Government is preparing an Equality Impact Assessment for both the 2017 and 2018 devolved employment services, the results of which will be published.

(a) The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 places specific duties on Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) and a defined list of public sector bodies linked to improving wellbeing. These public sector bodies must work together and with community bodies in CPPs to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities on themes which they consider to be priorities for local communities and places.

(b) Lead responsibility for tackling fuel poverty in local areas rests with public sector bodies such as local authorities, health and social care partnerships and NHS Boards, which can deliver action. We recognise the value of locally led, collaborative approaches that provide partners with opportunities to align their collective resources in more effective and efficient ways to improve outcomes in tackling fuel poverty and it is something we have been supporting through our Home Energy Efficiency Programmes: Area-Based Schemes. Local partners can also use community planning as a vehicle in which to collaborate, especially where action to address fuel poverty can support related themes which a CPP identifies as local priorities.

The Scottish Government has written to the UK Government urging them to reverse their proposal to reduce the Employment Support Allowance work related activity group by £30 per week for new claims from April 2017. There is no doubt this proposal will impact adversely on people in Scotland, and while we cannot mitigate all of the damage caused by the UK Government cuts, we are spending £104m in 2016-17, including £38m for the Scottish Welfare Fund, to support people where we can. Since April 2013 the Fund has provided £116 million to 230,000 households in Scotland.

The Scottish Government have explored opportunities for the engagement of staff from the Department of Work and Pensions to assist with implementing the Social Security Provision of the Scotland Act 2016. I can confirm that no DWP staff have been engaged on a secondee basis to date.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) publish annual statistics on the seasonal increase in mortality in their Winter Mortality in Scotland publication. The 2015-16 edition, available at the following link, includes breakdowns by NHS Board back to 2006-07.

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/winter-mortality

Figures for 2004-05 and 2005-06 are available in the 2013-14 edition of the publication (also available at the link).

Earlier editions include NHS Board breakdowns as far back as 1999-00. However, these are based on old NHS Board boundaries and are not always comparable with the most recent figures.

It is anticipated that figures for winter 2016-17 will be published in October 2017.

NRS also publish a monthly count of deaths, available at the following link. Figures for December 2016 and January 2017 have already been published and figures for February 2017 will be released on 14 March. It is not yet known how many of these deaths would be considered to be part of any seasonal increase, as the calculation involves comparing deaths in the four winter months with the four month period either side.

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths/monthly-data-on-deaths-registered-in-scotland