Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the services, support and care available to people with hearing loss through its national strategy ‘See Hear’. The strategy was jointly endorsed by COSLA and the Scottish Government allocated £2 million of funding, over two years, to support its implementation. The strategy is being delivered through local partnerships. Local leads are in place to identify priority areas and drive progress locally. In addition, the Scottish Government allocated a further £200,000 to the Scottish Lip Reading Strategy Group, between 2012-2015, to improve access to lip reading classes for adults with hearing loss in Scotland.

On screening issues we are advised by the UK National Screening Committee (NSC), an independent expert advisory group which advises Ministers and the NHS in the four UK countries about all aspects of screening.

In January 2016, following a review of the evidence against strict criteria, the Committee concluded that a screening programme for hearing loss in older adults should not be introduced.

More information about the Committee's recommendation can be found at: http://legacy.screening.nhs.uk/hearing-adult

The UK NSC regularly reviews its recommendations on screening in light of new research evidence becoming available and we will give careful consideration to any change to the recommendation.

We expect that mental health care and treatment will be delivered in a person-centred manner to meet each individual’s needs. That includes cases where the individual is a carer for someone who has a terminal illness.

On 18 December 2015, the Scottish Government published our Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care. One of the main aims in the Strategic Framework is to ensure that people with palliative and end of life care needs are supported by health professionals who are appropriately skilled to do so.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Social Services Council to develop a new palliative and end of life care Educational Framework. This Framework will address the needs of the health and social care workforce, and will be focused on fostering an integrated and collaborative approach to educational provision.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the services, support and care available to people with hearing loss through its national strategy ‘See Hear’. A Lip Reading Strategy Group is in place and is chaired by Action on Hearing Loss Scotland. The Group will next meet on the 6 February 2017.

We expect that mental health care and treatment will be delivered in a person-centred manner to meet each individual’s needs. This includes in circumstances where a child has experienced the death of a parent or close relative, and is subsequently experiencing mental health issues.

For more information about what general action the Scottish Government is taking to support children and young people affected by bereavement, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01444 on 5 August 2016.

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

We expect that mental health care and treatment will be delivered in a person-centred manner to meet each individual’s needs. That includes cases where the individual has a terminal illness.

On 18 December 2015, the Scottish Government published our Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care. One of the main aims in the Strategic Framework is to ensure that people with palliative and end of life care needs are supported by health professionals who are appropriately skilled to do so.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Social Services Council to develop a new palliative and end of life care Educational Framework. This Framework will address the needs of the health and social care workforce, and will be focused on fostering an integrated and collaborative approach to educational provision.

The Audiology Services Advisory Group (ASAG) was established by the Scottish Government in 2003 to take forward the audiology modernisation programme. Following the successful completion of the work in December 2011, it was agreed that the Group’s functions would be best served operationally at NHS board level through the Heads of Audiology Services Group, which meets quarterly and is due to next meet in February 2017. The Scottish Government is currently considering the recommendation from Action on Hearing Loss Scotland’s report, 'Time to raise the standards', on reconvening ASAG - see the answer to question S5W-04433 on 9 November 2016.

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

Data on the training of midwives and health visitors in NHS Scotland is not collated or held centrally.

Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) are funded through contributions from NHS Boards and local partners. NHS Boards provide funding from their general resource allocation and the specific funding allocation for ADPs provided by the Scottish Government.

For each of the financial years from 2011-12 to 2015-16, approximately £69 million per annum was made directly available to NHS Boards to allocate to ADPs. The breakdown by NHS Board for this period is provided in Table 1.

Policy responsibility for the drugs element of ADPs transferred from the Justice to Health portfolio on 1 April 2016 as part of the 2016/17 budget setting process in order to allow us to correctly address alcohol and drug misuse as a health issue.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health wrote to Chief Executives of Health Boards on
7 January 2016 clearly setting out our expectations for Boards to ensure that overall spending on supporting the treatment of alcohol and substance misuse is maintained.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-02033 on 11 November 2016. 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