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Volume 2 of the Children (Scotland)Act 1995 Regulations and Guidance sets out the preparation that should beundertaken by local authorities with a child prior to any foster placement. Theguidance makes clear that the child’s views must be taken into account whenconsidering a foster care placement and that methods to prepare children forplacement should be suited to their age or development.

Volume 2 of the Children (Scotland)Act 1995 Regulations and Guidance already provides guidance on these matters. Itmakes clear that reasonable proximity to the child’s birth family, or at leastconvenient public transport services, are desirable in placement where contactwith the child’s family is part of the care plan. The foster carers should beable to accommodate contact at the frequency the child needs, make birth familymembers welcome and help them feel relaxed with their child. Where a fosterhome is not within easy travelling distance, the social worker may need toorganise transport so that contact is not reduced by factors outside the birthfamily’s control.

The number of children looked after in foster care on 31 March 2002 is in the following table.

Local Authority Area	Children Looked After in Foster Care
Aberdeen City	130*
Aberdeenshire	115
Angus	85
Argyll and Bute	30
Clackmannanshire	35
Dumfries and Galloway	125
Dundee City	120
East Ayrshire	65
East Dunbartonshire	15
East Lothian	75
East Renfrewshire	10
Edinburgh - City of	320
Eilean Siar	5
Falkirk	85
Fife	185
Glasgow City	715
Highland	105
Inverclyde	25
Midlothian	45
Moray	55*
North Ayrshire	55
North Lanarkshire	140
Orkney Islands	10
Perth and Kinross	65
Renfrewshire	85
Scottish Borders	80
Shetland Islands	15
South Ayrshire	50
South Lanarkshire	75
Stirling	55
West Dunbartonshire	70
West Lothian	120
Scotland	3,170

Note:

Cells marked with anasterisk are where estimates have been made, figures rounded to the nearest fiveto preserve confidentiality.

The Fostering Network undertakesan annual Foster Care Fortnight campaign to raise awareness of the role of fostercare and its importance to vulnerable children and young people.

The outline agreement betweenofficials of the Scottish Court Service and the Scottish Borders Council relatingto the use of the council building at Rosetta Road, Peebles, for court hearingsdoes not include the provision of a public office for the Sheriff Clerk Depute.However, in tandem with the discussions on the use of the building for hearings,officials of both organisations are involved in detailed discussion on a partnershipagreement which would see much of the public office services of the sheriffcourt being delivered through the district court office at Rosetta Road.

In most cases investment in theScotRail routes was made many decades ago. It is not possible to determine how suchinvestments would perform under current appraisal techniques. All new proposalsfor rail investment in Scotland are appraised under the Scottish Transport AppraisalGuidance.

The Executive has already awardedup to £2.1 million to the Waverley Railway Partnership to progress this projectto parliamentary bill stage.

The Executive is committed tosupporting construction of the Borders rail line and we await submission of thedetailed business case.

I refer the member to the answergiven to question S2W-2920. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

The information requested isnot available. Data on out-patient waiting, by specialty, are collected centrallyafter patients have been seen at a consultant-led clinic, and is therefore retrospective.

Partnership for Care, which was published in February 2003, includes a commitmentto improve the management of out-patient waiting by recording for the first timethe number of referrals received for a service and the waiting time for patientswho have not been seen at a clinic. Work on this commitment is being taken forwardby the National Waiting Times Unit, in conjunction with NHSScotland and InformationStatistics Division Scotland.

NHS boards receive an allocation to meet health care needs of their resident population. It is for boards to decide how best to utilise this funding to meet national and local priorities.