Chamber and committees

There is no national screening programme for oral cancer and no centrally held data on how many oral cancer screenings that have taken place in NHS Scotland.

In January 2016, the UK National Screening Committee, which advises Ministers and the NHS about all aspects of screening policy recommended not to introduce national screening for oral cancer because a reliable test has not yet been identified and there is not enough evidence to determine how well existing tests would perform in a national programme.

In 2015-16 just over three million adults received an NHS dental check-up in Scotland. Dentists examining the mouth look for any oral abnormality, including oral cancer. NHS dental check-ups are free in Scotland.

The Local Government Financial Return (LFR3) collects information on income from client contributions for adults under 65 receiving Social Care services. This information is published in tables 4A and 4B of spreadsheet for the “Expenditure on Adult Social Care Services,

Scotland, 2003-04 to 2013-14” publication which can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/03/5885/downloads.

The Scottish Government in partnership with boards is constantly evaluating current national and local systems to ensure they are still fit for purpose and resilient. For example in 2016 there has been a board level gap analysis of the critical controls needed to mitigate cyber-attacks.

Details of specific operating systems covered on a board by board bases are not held centrally and it would be the responsibility of individual health boards to provide this information.

Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to assess a person’s community care needs and decide whether to arrange any required services.

Approximately 77,000 people in Scotland benefit from Free Personal Care, with more than 30,000 people in Care Homes and nearly 47,000 people living in their own home.

We take a broad approach to measuring the quality of care within our health service. Individual surgical units conduct morbidity and mortality meetings regularly, NSS Discovery allows appropriate benchmarking within and across Boards.

Our surgeons participate in a broad range of audits which are published and used to improve care. Some of these audits publish UK wide level consultant mortality data. In Scotland, we have seen surgical mortality fall by 24% in the last three years - partly as a result of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

Data on the number of referrals made by GP’s, schools or school nurses and named persons to child and adolescent mental health service is not held centrally ISD receives aggregated referral data from NHS Boards. It is not possible to identify the source of the referral.

Data on the number of referrals received and number of referrals rejected is collected and published on the ISD website (http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Child-and-Adolescent-Mental-Health/). Referrals rejected are referrals that do not meet the criteria for CAMHS intervention.

Charging guidelines for integration joint boards remain those issued by COSLA, as per S5W-04980 answered on 8 December 2016. These guidelines cover charging for non-residential social care services, which includes community alarms as a chargeable service.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The average age of Mental Health Nurses working in NHSScotland as at 30 September 2016 is 45.

Mental Health Officer (MHO) status, which allows members of the NHS Pension Scheme to retire with an unreduced pension from age 55 onwards (where the member has the necessary MHO service and is working as an MHO immediately before retiring) was discontinued for new members of the NHS Pension Scheme from 1 April 1995. Staff with MHO status at that point have the right to retain it, providing they do not have a break in NHS pensionable employment of five years or more and continue to work in an employment which attracts MHO status. It cannot be presumed, however, that all staff with MHO status who reach the age of 55 will retire at that point, as retirement is discretionary.

Under this Government, the number of Mental Health Nurses working in NHSScotland have increased by 2,158.5 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE), or 29.8 per cent, to 9,404.3 WTE. We have committed to introducing a national and regional workforce planning system across NHSScotland which will help deliver the vision set out in the National Clinical Strategy.

This information is not currently collected by the Scottish Government. The total number of people, broken down by age and by local authority, in receipt of telecare has been collected since 2011. See http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Data/HomeCare/HSCDHomecare.

As part of the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2016-17, £250m was provided from the Health budget to integration authorities for social care, of which £125m was provided to support additional spend on expanding social care, including through making progress on charging thresholds for all non-residential services to address poverty.

Details of the allocations were provided in response to question S4W-30141 answered on 26 February 2016.

The Scottish Government estimated that increasing charging thresholds from 16.5% to 25% would benefit around 13,000 people through reduced charges and take around 900 people out of charging altogether.