Health and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Official Report 435KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed Local Authority Functions etc) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 [draft]

Agenda item 2 concerns subordinate legislation. We will deal with one draft instrument that is subject to affirmative procedure. As is usually the case with affirmative instruments, we will have an evidence-taking session with the minister and officials, which will be followed by a formal debate on the motion. I welcome Shona Robison, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport; Peter Stapleton, Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 implementation manager; and Kate Walker, principal legal officer in the Scottish Government.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a brief opening statement.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly to the committee on these amending regulations. You will be aware that, when the Parliament passed the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 last February, integration of health and social care was already under way across Scotland. The committee will also recall that the purpose of the existing Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed Local Authority Functions etc) (Scotland) Regulations 2014 is to prescribe the mandatory delegation of adult social care functions to integration authorities so that those functions must form part of authorities’ strategic commissioning plans for delivering health and social care services locally.

The instrument that we are discussing today has been laid in order to amend the existing regulations so that they take account of the provisions in the 2016 act in the same way. If approved, the regulations will specify that the function of preparing local eligibility criteria under section 21 of the 2016 act is one that must be delegated by local authorities to integration authorities. The committee will be aware that the purpose of setting local eligibility criteria is to determine whether a local authority is required to provide support to individual carers to meet their identified needs.

As you know, the provisions of the 2016 act will commence in full on 1 April 2018. Most of the provisions in the act can already be delegated to integration authorities. Indeed, carers support services are already part of the integrated arrangements across Scotland under the existing regulations. Mandatory delegation of the function to local integration authorities will help to ensure that there is synergy between the strategic planning and commissioning priorities that integration authorities are setting and the legislative requirements to improve outcomes for carers that we as a Parliament supported during the passage of the 2016 act.

I am happy to take questions on the regulations.

As there are no questions from members, we will move to agenda item 3, which is the formal debate on the instrument on which we have just taken evidence. I remind the committee and others that questions should not be put to the cabinet secretary during the formal debate and that officials may not speak in the debate. I invite the minister to move motion S5M-05457.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Prescribed Local Authority Functions etc.) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Shona Robison]

Motion agreed to.

As was previously agreed, we now move into private session.

11:08 Meeting continued in private until 11:58.