Health and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Official Report 502KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 (Draft)

I welcome everyone to the seventh meeting of the Health and Sport Committee in 2010. I remind everyone to switch off their mobile phones and other electronic equipment. No apologies have been received.

Item 1 is oral evidence on an affirmative instrument, which amends existing regulations so as to increase the thresholds below which local authorities are not permitted to charge for certain types of social care that they provide. The cover paper sets that out in more detail. Members have a copy of the regulations along with papers for the meeting. The Subordinate Legislation Committee did not have any comments to make on the regulations.

The Minister for Public Health and Sport, Shona Robison MSP, is with us this morning, accompanied by Sean Eales, head of the care at home and free personal nursing care branch of the Scottish Government, and Jenny Stevenson, policy officer with that branch.

A motion that the committee recommend that the regulations be approved has been lodged and will be debated following the evidence session. Once that debate has begun, the minister’s officials will not be able to participate.

I ask the minister briefly to outline the regulations to the committee.

Thank you. I will be brief. The draft affirmative instrument that is before the committee today reflects the Scottish Government’s commitment to increase free personal nursing care payments in line with inflation. If approved, the regulations will benefit vulnerable older people.

Last year, we increased the personal and nursing care payments for residents in care homes in line with inflation. These regulations will further increase the weekly payments by £3 to £156 for personal care and by £2 to £71 for additional nursing care, in line with inflation. In line with our concordat with local government, councils will meet the costs of the inflationary increases, which total around £2.1 million across all councils, from their agreed settlement allocations.

The free personal and nursing care policy continues to command strong support, and I hope that the draft regulations receive the committee’s support. I am happy to take any questions.

There will be a change of personnel.

As you say, the issue is not relevant to the matter that is before us, but the minister should feel free to address it if she wants to.

Thank you. I see that no one else has questions on that matter, so we move to item 2, which is a debate on the motion to recommend that the regulations be approved. Does any member wish to speak in the debate?

Members: No.

I invite the minister to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the draft Community Care (Personal Care and Nursing Care) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 (SSI/2010/draft) be approved.—[Shona Robison.]

Motion agreed to.

Thank you. Do members have any comments?

I have a question on an issue that Marilyn Livingstone raised at the cross-party group on Alzheimer’s, which is chaired by Irene Oldfather. It relates to Abbeyfield care homes in Fife, although I know that it is an issue throughout Scotland.

The amount that is paid for a person in a council-run home is, on average, around 80 per cent more per person per week than it is for someone who is cared for in an independent charity or voluntary sector home. I say “on average”, because I have submitted a freedom of information request to all councils in Scotland. I know that that issue has nothing to do with the increase that we are discussing today but, nonetheless, if 80 per cent more money is spent on keeping a person in a council home, given current tight budgets, it means that fewer people are cared for overall. Is your Government concerned about that, minister? Can you do something about that, as all homes have to meet the same quality standards?

I know that Mary Scanlon has raised that issue before. The differential in payments is certainly a long-standing issue; the pay rates for staff and so on are probably at the root of it.

I say to Mary Scanlon—as I think I have said to her before—that all these issues could be considered as part of the work on reshaping older people’s care. That is a chance for us to consider, root and branch, how we deliver services in care homes and in the community. We can also examine the respective roles of local authority-run care homes and those that are run by the private sector, and consider whether a refocusing of roles is necessary. All these things can be put into the mix, and perhaps a resolution to some of the long-standing issues can be found through that route.

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Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Office or Body as Specified Authority) Order 2010 (Draft)

Yes—you had better have a long title if you are dealing with SCSWIS.

A motion that the committee recommend that the order be approved has been lodged and will be debated following the evidence session. Once the debate has begun, the minister’s official will not be able to participate. I ask the minister briefly to outline the order to the committee.

I thank the minister, and suspend the committee for 5 minutes while we await the witnesses for the next evidence session.

09:41 Meeting suspended.

09:46 On resuming—

Item 3 is an oral evidence session on an affirmative instrument. The order provides that healthcare improvement Scotland and social care and social work improvement Scotland—I remember that we call that SCSWIS, or something funny—shall, for the purposes of appointments to those bodies, be treated as if they were specified authorities listed in schedule 2 to the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003. Members have a copy of the draft order with their papers. The Subordinate Legislation Committee has no comments to make on the instrument.

For this evidence session, the minister is accompanied by Denise McLister, business change manager in the scrutiny bodies project team in the Scottish Government. That title is a lot to say when you are writing a CV.

If you are in charge of SCSWIS, what else would you expect?

The order will ensure that the chair appointments to HIS and SCSWIS come under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland. It allows those two new scrutiny bodies, which are being created by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill, to be treated for the purpose of appointments to them as if they were specified authorities listed in schedule 2 to the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003. That will bring them within the remit of the commissioner and ensure that appointments are made in line with the commissioner’s code of practice.

I see that members have no questions for the minister on the matter, and that no one wishes to debate the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Office or Body as Specified Authority) Order 2010 (SSI/2010/draft) be approved.—[Shona Robison.]

Motion agreed to.