Chamber and committees

In relation to action on theissues covered in this question, guidance issued by the Executive on TheChildren (Scotland) Act 1995 – volume 2, Children Looked After by LocalAuthorities states that care plans for looked after children should fullyreflect health care needs. Local authorities are required to arrange for amedical examination to provide a comprehensive health profile of the child andto give a basis for monitoring the child’s development for the period they are lookedafter.

Scottish Ministers actingthrough Communities Scotland now require East Lothian Council to take action toensure that homeless people in its area receive adequate services. The council’simprovement plan, setting out how it will respond to the findings of thePathfinder Inspection Report is due to be submitted on 17 March 2004.

Communities Scotlandexpects this to contain immediate, short term and longer term actions toprogress improvements. The agency will then agree arrangements with the localauthority for monitoring the implementation of the plan to ensure that thenecessary improvements in the services for homeless people and those threatenedwith homelessness are achieved. Performance in this area will be reassessedwithin two years and a full re-inspection of the local authority will becarried out within five years.

The Scottish Executive is currently working with its expert advisory Child Health Support Group to secure improvement in children and young people’smental health and in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) services,through implementation of the Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) Reporton Child and Adolescent Mental Health, published last year. It isanticipated that this work will improve the capacity of specialist CAMHservices to provide a more effective service for looked after children andyoung people. A key element is the development of a “template” which will describethe essential elements of a comprehensive CAMH service. It will includeservices for vulnerable children and young people, such as those who are lookedafter, and is expected to be published in the autumn of 2004. However, decisionsabout local health service provision are ultimately a matter for each NHS board.

The Scottish Executive published a revised NHS Code of Practice on Protecting PatientConfidentiality in July 2003 and issued guidance in August on The Use ofPersonal Health Information in NHSScotland to Support Patient Care. Guidance onsharing information and confidentiality is also provided in Getting ourPriorities Right, published in February 2003.

The PARTNERS programme, which has been rolled out tovirtually all GP practices in Scotland, allows faster and more accurate registration ofpatients with GP practices. Patient records are currently transferred betweenGP practices via the Common Services Agency and fast track arrangements are inplace where records are required urgently. Work is ongoing to develop andimplement programmes to link GP practices and the Practitioner ServicesDivision electronically, in order to support the electronic exchange ofrecords.

The Scottish Executive has no current plans to introduce specific good practice guidance to createcloser working links between allied GP surgeries and community healthdepartments. However, draft statutory guidance was published on 8th March forconsultation on the establishment of Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) underthe NHS Reform (Scotland) Bill. NHS boards will be expected to discuss andagree with local authority and other stakeholders the services which each CHPwill manage and/or co-ordinate. However, the draft statutory guidance statesthat CHPs should directly manage and provide, or have a lead role inco-ordinating, influencing or directing the delivery of services to supportvulnerable groups of children and young children including those looked afterby the local authority. The statutory guidance will be finalised once the NHS Reform(Scotland) Bill is enacted.

We have also allocated an additional £13.3 million to NHS boards over the years 2001-02 to 2003-04 to support treatment services for drug misusers. These services include needle exchange facilities.

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/webapp/search_wa.

It is for local services topurchase and distribute this equipment, based on local priorities and demand. Allocationsof injecting equipment to individual clients will depend on the needs andcircumstances in each case. The answer given to question S2W-6704 on 16 March 2004describes the resources made available from the Executive which can be used tosupport local needle exchange facilities.

All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at:

The Antenatal screening sub groupof the NSC has been fully informed about this Report and will be consideringthe findings to help inform discussions around the advice the committee mayoffer to the 4 UK health departments. As part of their considerationsthe NSC will look at the research aspects mentioned. If they consider furtherresearch is required NSC will take forward the commissioning of research.