Chamber and committees

No national guidance specific to rotavirus infections is given to childminders.

The current number of consultant vacancies in psychiatry within NHSScotland and the indicated boards is as follows:

NHS Board (All Figures Are As At 30 September 2008)	Total Number Consultants in Psychiatry	Total Consultant Psychiatry Vacancies	Posts Vacant Over Six Months
NHSScotland	522	43	16
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	23	8	3
NHS Lanarkshire	48	13	7
NHS Highland	21	6	6

NHS Ayrshire and Arran currently reports an improvement in their vacancy level with candidates appointed to five posts. NHS Highland and NHS Lanarkshire indicate that locum cover is in place with an active recruitment programme running to fill these posts on a substantive basis. NHS Lanarkshire also indicates that of the vacancies listed, one of these is a new post created to support the expansion of their eating disorder service.

In response to feedback from NHS boards regarding shortages of staff in key medical specialties, the Scottish Government Health Workforce Directorate is supporting a new national programme to coordinate and manage international medical recruitment on behalf of NHSScotland. The overall objective is to facilitate a coordinated, NHSScotland branded international recruitment programme. This scheme will be based within, and administered, by NHS Lanarkshire. It will run for an 18-month period and will look to generate a pool of eligible candidates in required medical specialties which boards can recruit to current vacancies.

NHS Highland indicate that they currently hold three older adult psychiatry vacancies within NHS Highland. The older adult psychiatry North Highland post has been created by innovative service redesign with the inclusion of additional sessions to incorporate one whole time equivalent post to make it more desirable to prospective candidates. This post will be re-advertised in August 2009. The older adult psychiatry South Highland post is due to be re-advertised also in August 2009. NHS Highland also indicate that they have potential candidates for both posts who will be in a position to apply for these consultant posts after August 2009, one completing their certificate of completion of training (CCT) and one going through the process to be included on the Specialist Register through the Article 14 route. The older adult psychiatry West Highland post is being interviewed for on 18 August and NHS Highland expect to be able to appoint to that vacancy at that time.

The National Services Scotland, Information Services Division (ISD) and NHS Education for Scotland Psychology Workforce Planning Project plans to initiate recording and reporting of psychology vacancy data during 2010. Information on the current data reported by the project are at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5381.html.

There are three main approaches. Firstly, clinicians routinely collect diagnostic information in the course of their practice and this information may be aggregated to provide national information about particular conditions. Examples of this are the use of read codes in general practice and of psychiatric inpatient episode records for inpatients. This produces good data about people who are in contact with different component parts of the NHS. Secondly, the NHS commissions survey work to assess the number of people with mental health problems. An example of this is the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey which provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorders on the basis of surveying the general population on the particular issue of mental illness. Scotland participated in that survey in 1993 and 2000. Thirdly, questions about people''s own perception and experience of their mental health are included within more general surveys such as the Scottish Health Survey. Taking these approaches together, we believe we have an accurate estimate of the number of people with more serious mental illnesses, but a more general understanding of the number of people suffering from disorders such as depression and anxiety.

A staffing statistical survey is undertaken on a yearly basis and asks each local authority for the number of currently unfilled vacancies as at 31 March of that year.

The national standards for crisis services was published in 2006, followed by the Crisis Toolkit in 2008; both key parts of the Scottish Government''s work with partners in recent years on strengthening community mental health services and reducing inappropriate readmissions.

Implementation of the national standards is evaluated as part of the Scottish Government''s performance management of NHS boards and complemented by the work of the Mental Health Collaborative in helping boards achieve the HEAT target on reducing readmissions. In addition, the work of the Mental Health NHS Benchmarking Project includes action on developing the collection of data on the availability of crisis and out-of-hours services. This data will enable boards and others to compare and measure service provision and enhance planning.

Audit Scotland record in the report that they will commission external auditors to evaluate progress made by the Scottish Government and local partners against the recommendations made in the report, using the self-assessment checklist for local partners appended to the report.

This commission, and the timing of the external auditor''s report, will be determined by Audit Scotland.

The Scottish Government began the Mental Health NHS Benchmarking Project in 2007, to obtain more comprehensive information around both inpatient and community services.

Common definitions of community mental health services have been established across Scotland to enable measurement and comparison of services in each NHS board area in terms of type of service, availability and staffing. This data collection has been piloted in the board areas and a further collection round is due for completion in August 2009. A costing pilot to relate costs of community services to individual services has been completed in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Forth Valley. A workshop was held with finance officers in each board area to explain the methodology to them, and each board will now attempt to match costs to community services by the end of the year.

The benchmarking project is also now undertaking a scoping exercise to ascertain current provision and need in terms accessing information on services by IT.

Local authorities also provide community mental health services both directly or through the voluntary sector. The Mental Health Benchmarking Group has representation from the local authorities and through them we have approached the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) who have taken forward a piece of work to commission common core definitions around local authority services. This report has to go to ADSW and local authorities for consultation and approval.

Since 2001-03 the suicide rate in Scotland has reduced by 10%. The Scottish Government is committed to reducing suicide in Scotland by 20% by 2013. The government''s commitment is supported by Choose Life, our 10 year strategic framework and action plan for suicide prevention which is hosted by NHS Health Scotland. NHS boards, local authorities and the voluntary sector are engaged in local activity in support of the target.

In addition, the NHS has a national target which is to increase workforce knowledge and skills in suicide prevention by ensuring that 50% of frontline primary care, accident and emergency, and mental health and substance misuse staff have been trained in suicide awareness or prevention by the end of 2010. The Scottish Government continues to fund the Scottish element of the UK Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness and undertakes research to improve our knowledge of the key factors underlying suicides including through the development of a confidential suicide register for Scotland.