- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address any shortage of skilled nurses to manage the caseloads of patients with hepatitis C.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is committed to building nursing capacity within NHSScotland and is on track to achieve the Partnership Agreement target of attracting 12,000 nurses and midwives to NHS Scotland by 2007.
In addition, the Facing the Future initiative for recruitment and retention of nurses is supporting and promoting a range of measures to boost the number of qualified nurses in NHSScotland, which is now at an all time high of 39,000 whole-time equivalents (WTE).
Information on clinical nurse specialists employed in NHSScotland was collected for the first time at 30 September 2003. Across Scotland nurse specialists who treat and care for patients with hepatitis C can beidentified under the following titles: gastro-intestinal specialist nurses, hepatology specialist nurses and substance misuse specialist nurses. Information on staff in post by NHS board and clinical area of work is published in the report Clinical Nurse Specialists – Results from the Pilot Data Collection. This report is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.
Information on Clinical Nurse Specialists is now collected annually at 30 September each year and compliments other intelligence and data for workforce planning purposes.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the launch of its hepatitis C action plan will be accompanied by a financial commitment and, if so, whether this will be new funding and whether it will be ring-fenced.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-13828, on 7 February 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has put audit processes in place to assess the effectiveness of hepatitis C prevention and harm-reduction measures.
Answer
Current processes include:
- monitoring by Health Protection Scotland of the prevalence of hepatitis C among injecting drug users. This surveillance activity is designed to monitor trends so that the effectiveness of interventions can be evaluated.
- a study, funded by the Effective Interventions Unit, to evaluate the effectiveness of the raising of the limits on the numbers of needles and syringes made available to injecting drug users; a report on the findings of this study will be published in 2005.
- a study, funded by the Chief Scientist Office, to evaluate the impact of methadone maintenance on high risk behaviours among injecting drug users, which was completed last year. A final report has been submitted to the Chief Scientist Office and a scientific publication is likely in 2005.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 3 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether providing capital funding for works undertaken by the Care and Repair Scheme, which may include aids and adaptations and a handyman service, through the private sector housing grant disadvantages those in the socially-rented sector from accessing such services.
Answer
We are committed to meetingthe housing needs of people in all tenures across Scotlandincluding owner occupiers. Care and Repair projects help older owner-occupiersand private sector tenants to arrange repairs and adaptations to their homes,and may also provide handyman services for small household jobs. Clients mayapply for grants from the local authority, funded by Private Sector Housing Grant,to help with the capital costs of major works.
In the social rented sector,repairs and adaptations will be arranged by the landlord, and are funded fromrents and specific grants available from Communities Scotland. RegisteredSocial Landlords can provide handyman services for their older tenants if theywish, to help with jobs that would normally be the tenant’s responsibility. Insome areas agreement may be reached for one agency to provide handyman servicesto people in all tenures. This should be arranged with appropriate financialcontributions from all partners.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Johann Lamont on 3 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what concerns it has that local authorities may have moved funding from handyman services and aids and adaptations for tenants in the socially-rented sector in order to provide the required contributions to funding the Care and Repair Scheme.
Answer
Aids and adaptations andhandyman services for tenants in the social rented sector are funded from rentsand specific grants from Communities Scotland. This funding would not beeligible to be used to support Care and Repair services, which work to improvehousing conditions in the private sector.
Additional information onCare and Repair funding is available in the report “Care and Repair NationalIndicators 2003-04” published by Communities Scotland:
http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/web/FILES/carerepair2004.pdf.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the objectives in its Financial Inclusion Action Plan of January 2005, what target it has for people living in "vulnerable and disadvantaged groups" working in sustained employment.
Answer
There is information on the Executive’s closing the opportunity gap website,
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/people/social-inclusion/17415/opportunity about targets relating to sustained employment for workless people dependent on Department of Work and Pensions benefits in key areas, 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment, employees of public sector and large employers on low wages, young people leaving care and residents of the most deprived neighbourhoods.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the objectives in its Financial Inclusion Action Plan of January 2005, how many people were designated as being in "vulnerable and disadvantaged groups" and living in Scotland in (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Financial Inclusion Action Plan refers to the Executive’s six closing the opportunity gap (CTOG) objectives, announced on 12 July 2004. One of these is: to increase the chances of sustained employment for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.
The CTOG objectives are underpinned by targets identifying key aspects of poverty and deprivation on which progress is required. Details are available on the Executive’s CTOG website:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/topics/people/social-inclusion/17415/opportunity.
Specific CTOG targets refer to workless people dependent on Department of Work and Pension benefits in key areas, 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment, employees of public sector and large employers on low wages, young people leaving care and residents of the most deprived neighbourhoods. The definition of “vulnerable and disadvantaged groups” is a wide one, however, and includes people with a wider range of characteristics such as disability or caringresponsibilities. Some people have multiple such disadvantages. It is notpossible, therefore, to give overall numbers, nor to break these down by yearor local authority area.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the objectives in its Financial Inclusion Action Plan of January 2005, how many people living in "vulnerable and disadvantaged groups" were in sustained employment in (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2002, (d) 2003 and (e) 2004.
Answer
Figures for all people in Scotland in employment in the years concerned are as follows. It is not possible, however, to define how many of these are in vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, nor how many are in sustained employment.
| Levels* | Thousands |
| Year | Quarter | Employment |
| 2000 | Sep-Nov | 2,360 |
| 2001 | Sep-Nov | 2,351 |
| 2002 | Sep-Nov | 2,370 |
| 2003 | Sep-Nov | 2,402 |
| 2004 | Sep-Nov | 2,446 |
Note: *Levels are for those 16+.
Source: Labour Force Survey.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence it has to link deprivation in communities with crime and family breakdown.
Answer
There is a substantial body of evidence linking deprivation with crime and family breakdown available to the Executive. The evidence comes primarily from regular statistical surveys such as the British Crime Survey (BCS) and its Scottish equivalent, the Scottish Crime Survey (SCS), and from research on neighbourhood deprivation, social exclusion and poverty, undertaken at research centres across the UK, including research funded by the Executive on Life in Low Income Families, published in 2003.
The BCS has consistently revealed that individuals living in deprived neighbourhoods are more likely to register higher levels of victimisation and fear of crime than those living in less deprived neighbourhoods. The SCS confirms these findings for a range of crimes such as vehicle crime, violent crime and domestic abuse.
Research on poverty and social exclusion continues to draw attention not only to the extent of income and material deprivation experienced in poor families but also to the social consequences for the families concerned, including family breakdown.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 31 January 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a policy of continuously monitoring morale among members of children's panels to ensure that retention levels do not fall below current levels.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-12922, answered on 22 December 2004. 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/webapp/wa.search.
