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We are not aware of anylocal authorities currently operating waiting lists for direct payments.

The Scottish Executive doesnot monitor the training of social workers in the provision and implementationof direct payments. As part of the grant aided expenditure for direct paymentsin 2006, we expect local authorities to provide training for their staff whoseroles involve care assessment and care management.

The Executive monitors localauthorities’ activities on direct payments in two ways.

Local authorities are requiredto complete the quarterly statistical return DP1 of key monitoring information,which the Scottish Executive compiles into an annual statistical return. Thelatest national figures are available on the Scottish Executive website at thefollowing link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/25160444/0.

In response to the HealthCommittee’s recent Care Inquiry, the Scottish Executive issued in September draftguidance for public consultation which highlights that Local ImprovementTargets (LITs) of the Joint Performance Information and Assessment Framework(JPIAF) are used to monitor local authority performance. It is an expectationof the grant aided expenditure (GAE) for direct payments for 2006 onwards thatlocal authorities provide local information, support and training, both fordirect payments recipients and personal assistants (PAs,) and local authoritystaff involved in financing and delivering care locally. We shall use LITs tomonitor progress on delivery. Further information on LITs can be found on the Scottish Executive Joint Future website at the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/care/JointFuture/LITS.

A wide range of mental healthservices are provided for young people in Scotland. Whilst we do not collect detailed information centrallyon every service, Children and Young People’s Mental Health: A Framework for Promotion,Prevention and Care was developed in 2005 to assist local health, education andsocial services in planning and delivering integrated approaches to children andyoung people’s mental health and wellbeing, and provides an overview of servicesput in place for young people.

For funding allocated under theNew Community Schools Programme to Argyll and Bute Council and West DunbartonshireCouncil in each year over the period 1999 to 2002, I refer the member to the answerto question S1W-19613 on 15 November 2001. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Overthe period 2002-07, funding for the New Community Schools Programme has been providedthrough the National Priorities Action Fund (NPAF). Funding allocated to Argyll and Bute Council and West Dunbartonshire Councilin each of these years is provided in the following table.

Year	Argyll and Bute (£)	West Dunbartonshire (£)
2002-03	402,160	435,080
2003-04	402,160	451,120
2004-05	303,240	468,160
2005-06	404,320	585,200
2006-07	404,320	585,200

 

Funding is used to promote anintegrated approach to the delivery of services and support for children and families.Expenditure on individual areas is a matter for each authority taking into accountlocal needs and priorities. Examples of expenditure include: appointment of integrationco-ordinators; employment of additional staffing; interagency training and disseminationof good practice; development of joint assessment and action planning frameworks,and support for learning within and out with the school.

The number of teachers in Argylland Bute and West Dunbartonshire in 2003-04 to 2005-06 (the latest figures available)are available in the statistical publication Teachers in Scotland, 2005 whichcan be accessed at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/28083648/102.

Similarly the number of classroomassistants in these local authorities in 2005 can be accessed in that publicationand the figures for 2003-04 are available in the statistical publication Teachersin Scotland, 2003 which can be accessed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/07/19729/40787.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

It is expected that eligiblehouseholders who applied to the programme before 31 October 2006 will have receiveda central heating system or Warm Deal insulation measures before March 2007. Wherehouseholders require gas connections, electrical upgrades, building warrants etc,it may, in some circumstances, take longer for them to receive the measures.

I have asked Angiolina Foster,Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Waiting list information aboutthese programmes is held at postcode area.

The number of householders waitingfor their eligibility to be established or for installation work to commence inthe G and PA postcode areas is shown in the following table.

	Postcode Area: G	Postcode Area: PA
Central Heating Programme	691	951
Warm Deal Programme	75	103

 

Information on average classsizes in secondary schools is not routinely collected. The average primary classsize in Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire in 2005-06 are available in the statistical publicationPupils in Scotland, 2005 which can be accessed at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/28083932/0.

The mental well-being of childrenand young people is a cross-Executive priority with action underway in a range ofareas of policy and practice. Getting it Right for Every Child is the Executive’sover-arching programme of reform for children’s services which will ensure thatall agencies working with young people will join up, plan together and meet allthe needs of the child. Many schools involved in the Schools of Ambition programmeare tackling improvements in pupil confidence and self-esteem as part of their whole-schooltransformation.

The Scottish Health PromotingSchools Unit (SHPSU) is working to ensure that every school works toward becominga health promoting school by 2007. The Schools (Health Promotion and Nutrition)(Scotland) Bill, currently being considered by parliament, is intended to buildon this work and go further by placing health promotion - including the promotionof positive mental health - at the heart of all schools’ activities.

Children and Young People’s Mental Health: A Framework for Promotion, Preventionand Care, which was published in 2005, established an integrated approach to positive mentalhealth promotion, prevention of mental illness and early care and treatment of mentalhealth problems amongst children and young people in health, education and socialservices.

Improvingthe mental health of children and young people is one of the six priority areasfor action under the Executive’s National Programme for Improving Mental Healthand Well-being.

These key interventions designedto promote the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people are supporteddirectly and indirectly by a range of other initiatives, funded by the Executive.