Chamber and committees

The exact number of people who have been diagnosed with keratoconus and were treated with collagen crosslinking in each of the last four years, broken down by NHS board area, is not available centrally.

The Scottish Government holds details of community land purchases under the Community Right to Buy provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (the 2003 Act). There is no requirement to intimate to the Scottish Government other arrangements between communities and landowners to purchase or lease land.

Under the Community Right to Buy provisions of the 2003 Act, 15 communities in the South of Scotland have registered an interest in land and will have the chance to buy that land should it be offered for sale. No communities in this area have, to date, acquired land under these provisions.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the sources of funding used by communities to purchase land.

Funding available to communities may include grant aid, loans, and private investment. Communities determine the best funding source appropriate to their proposed purchase of land.

Information on funding is available through channels such as Rural Direct and the Rural Funding Opportunities Guide leaflet, published by the Scottish Government in 2009. Both are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Rural/rural-communities/access-funding.

The Community Right to Buy website also includes a number of funding options  and the Community Right to Buy guidance includes contact details for a number of funders:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Rural/rural-land/right-to-buy/Resources.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Rural/rural-land/right-to-buy/Community/Guidance.

The Scottish Government provides a range of support for communities throughout Scotland wishing to acquire land. Officials can provide guidance to communities wishing to use the Community Right to Buy provisions in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Information and guidance is also available on the right to buy website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Rural/rural-land/right-to-buy/Community.

We encourage communities to contact officials as early as possible so that they can consider fully the options available to them to purchase land and work up their proposals for the sustainable development of that land.

In addition work in taking forward the Community Empowerment Action Plan includes a two year programme addressing awareness raising among councillors, local authority officers and community groups about the benefits of community asset ownership and asset transfers; identifying and disseminating lessons from effective practice, and providing targeted development support for selected community groups to enable them to take on transferred assets.

The National Care Home Contract for publicly funded care home residents aged 65 and over in independent care homes is agreed on an annual basis between COSLA and representatives of the independent care home sector. The Enhanced Quality Award (EQA) was introduced as part of the negotiations on fee levels for 2010-11 and takes effect from 1 April 2010. To incentivise improved quality in care homes for older people, an EQA will be paid to the best performing care homes on the following basis:

Care Homes with Nursing - an additional £2.00 per resident per week will be paid if a Care Commission Quality Assessment Framework (QAF) grade 5 or 6 is achieved in the inspection theme of Quality of Care and Support and a minimum of grade 3 is achieved in the other 3 inspection themes. A further £1.00 per resident per week will be paid to homes that achieve a QAF grade of 5 or 6 in Quality of Care and Support and a minimum of grade 5 in any one other category.

Residential Care Homes - an additional £1.50 per resident per week will be paid if a QAF grade of 5 or 6 is achieved in Quality of Care and Support and a minimum of grade 3 in the other categories. A further £1.00 per resident per week will be paid to homes that achieve a QAF grade 5 or 6 in Quality of Care and Support and a minimum of grade 5 in any one other category.

No EQAs have been paid to date. COSLA has confirmed that local authorities are currently calculating the payments due using information from the Care Commission. The following criteria are to be applied:

homes that meet the criteria going into 2010-11 will get the EQA from start;

previous QAF Grading applies to each theme until changed through inspection or complaint processes;

performance will be judged across two, six month, periods within the financial year - April to September, and October to March inclusive

changes (both increases and decreases) will be backdated to the beginning of the six month period.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-32729 on 14 April 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

This information is not collected centrally.

We have developed a guide (The Matrix) for NHS boards to use in considering which psychological interventions might best be used to meet local need and demand. This guide includes bibliotherapy as a treatment for mild depression and anxiety.

No national Scottish evaluation has been commissioned on bibliotherapy. Bibliotherapy is included in NICE guidelines and The Matrix as a recommended treatment for anxiety and other disorders on the basis of a range of research evidence.

This information is not collected centrally.

No funding has been allocated by Choose Life (now part of NHS Health Scotland) for Bibliotherapy.

We are aware that some Choose Life co-ordinators have been involved to varying degrees, in bibliotherapy services in their area. These services, for the most part, have not been funded using specific Choose Life funding. However, there are a few exceptions noted below:

2008 to Date

Midlothian: Choose Life contributed £5,000 to the setting up of Midlothian''s new Healthy Reading (mental health and wellbeing) scheme in 2008-09. They plan to contribute a further £3,000 in 2010-11 towards phase 2 of the Healthy Reading scheme - this will focus on resources for children and young people''s mental health and wellbeing.

North Lanarkshire: the funding has been for materials on suicide prevention (bookmarks with suicide prevention messages and resources) and training for librarians in mental health training, as Lanarkshire has rolled out a healthy reading programme in all libraries.

East Lothian: January 2007 - £6,000 to develop and launch a local bibliotherapy scheme. September 2007 - £8,000 to establish and embed the scheme within mainstream library services. January 2008 - £8,000 to develop and launch a local scheme aimed at children and young people.

Pre-2008

North Ayrshire: Choose Life funded some purchase of resources (books around preventing self harm) for a bibliotherapy project in 2005-06 approx £100 to £200.

Argyll and Bute: provided funding of £3,500 in 2004-05.

Highland: funded a poetry project in 2006.