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Since audiology servicesare not consultant-led, or defined as a speciality, and are a sub-specialty ofear, nose and throat, they do not fall under the current 18 week target of the ScottishGovernment. However, the Scottish Government is committed to improving servicesfor the benefit of patients, ispleased that a number of NHSScotland boards have met, and in some cases exceeded,the 26 week target from referral to fitting set by the Audiology Modernisation ProjectBoard and will continue to measureboards’ progress towards modernisation of the service allowing us to identify regionalvariations in service delivery and standards.

Where waiting timesremain unacceptably high, the Scottish Government continues to work directly withthe boards involved to help improve the situation as a matter of urgency.

The information requestedis not held centrally. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-3570 on6 September 2007 for information on local authority pre-primaryeducation expenditure. It is not possible to split these data between educationand child care services.All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Statistics onlocal authority spend are not collected on a per child basis. The pre-primaryeducation expenditure figures for 2005-06 (the latest year for which figuresare available) are provided in the following table. Pre-primary educationexpenditure includes expenditure on nursery schools, other under 5s expenditurenot located in primary schools or special schools, childcare services andregistration services.

Pre-primary EducationExpenditure 2005-06 (£000)

Local Authority Area	Gross	Net
Scotland	284,484	267,174
Aberdeen City	8,689	8,608
Aberdeenshire	9,661	9,623
Angus	4,706	4,602
Argyll and Bute	5,252	4,854
Clackmannanshire	3,563	2,900
Dumfries and Galloway	7,592	7,389
Dundee City	8,077	7,384
East Ayrshire	8,824	7,905
East Dunbartonshire	4,776	4,251
East Lothian	5,053	4,472
East Renfrewshire	6,346	5,693
Edinburgh, City of	20,793	19,179
Eilean Siar	1,587	1,474
Falkirk	8,405	7,269
Fife	16,265	15,777
Glasgow City	45,061	43,826
Highland	11,478	9,766
Inverclyde	5,224	5,004
Midlothian	4,855	4,547
Moray	4,035	3,899
North Ayrshire	6,951	6,750
North Lanarkshire	18,916	18,023
Orkney Islands	801	801
Perth and Kinross	5,380	5,155
Renfrewshire	12,625	12,054
Scottish Borders	4,767	4,519
Shetland Islands	1,365	1,329
South Ayrshire	5,403	5,157
South Lanarkshire	13,391	12,191
Stirling	5,934	5,472
West Dunbartonshire	8,255	7,630
West Lothian	10,454	9,671

Source:LFR 1 (Education) returns.

Note:Gross expenditure is the total expenditure. Net expenditure is the grossexpenditure minus any income, for example from grants, fees or charges.

The Independent FundingReview of Free Personal and Nursing Care, chaired by Lord Sutherland, will investigatethe level and distribution of resources to local authorities in implementing thispolicy. Local authorities arerequired to meet their statutory responsibilities for the assessment and deliveryof services to older people in their area. It is for each individual local authorityto determine the most appropriate allocation of the total resources available toit to meet these and it’s other responsibilities.

Theresponsibility for planning and delivering pre-school education lies with localauthorities. Authorities need to take population projections into account toensure that there is enough pre-school education provision available in theright areas. Over time this may involve opening new provision and closing othercentres in line with patterns of demand.

The Scottish governmenthas no plans to undertake an investigation into the reasons for the closure ofindividual pre-school education settings.

The Child ProtectionLine has answered the following calls since February 2007:

Feb 2007	98
March 2007	82
April 2007	40
May 2007	36
June 2007	44
July 2007	27
Total	327

 

This informationis not held centrally.

Statistics on thenumber of pre-school education providers by local authority and type ofproviders are available in the pre-school and child care statistics 2006 availableat http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/09/13155926/0.

The Cabinet Secretaryfor Health and Wellbeing has publicly made clear the Scottish Government’s oppositionon the use of public money to assist the private sector compete with the NHS.

The national private sector call-off contract, put in place underthe audiology modernisation project to support NHS boards in reducing waiting times,recently ended. In the meantime, the Allied Health Professionals contract, whichruns until May 2008, allows NHS boards to employ temporary locum audiologists toassist in reducing waiting times.

The operation of theChild Protection Line is under review and development through a national workinggroup, whose membership includes representatives from Child Protection Committees(including police and social workers) and out-of-hours and phone-based child protectionservice providers. See www.scotland.gov.uk/childprotectionfor further information.

We plan to commissiona rigorous independent evaluation of the service after it has been operational for18 months, in August 2008.

We are currently consideringhow best to increase public awareness of the national Child Protection Line andwill be discussing proposals with the national working group for this project andwith Child Protection Committees.