Chamber and committees

Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) is being rolled out across Scotland and has already been implemented in four NHS Boards. HEPMA systems do not automatically ensure that people get their medication on time but HEPMA can enable and support Boards locally to design new processes and ways of working for patient care. NHS Ayrshire & Arran and NHS Dumfries & Galloway utilise a HEPMA report developed in Ayrshire & Arran to monitor the timeliness of administration for Parkinson’s medication.

The national Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) Oversight Board, who monitor all benefits from HEPMA implementations, will share the learning from the NHS Ayrshire & Arran pilot to support best practice and drive improvement across Scotland.

Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) has been successfully implemented in four Health boards including NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Lanarkshire. Work is underway to rollout HEPMA systems to the remaining Health Boards and this is expected to be fully implemented over the next three to five years.

This information is not held centrally. It may be available on request from individual health boards.

It is unacceptable that there is a fire risk from these and any other white goods. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service's website provides clear advice on how to reduce the risks of fire from white goods. Everyone should use the "register my appliance" website to get alerts should faults be identified. Whirlpool consumers can check whether their appliance is affected by visiting the Whirlpool recall website https://washingmachinerecall.whirlpool.co.uk. Advice can also be obtained from https://consumeradvice.scot , which is a consumer helpline funded by the Scottish Government.

Information relating to residential accommodation care and support charges for older people are available in the Care Home Census for Adults in Scotland , Figures for 2007 – 2017, which was published on the 11 September 2018.

Under Section 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, local authorities charge for the care it provides. This information is available at local levels and is not collected by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government updates and issues the Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (“CRAG”) each year. This guidance provides information in relation to charging for care and support in residential care settings.

The guidance is provided to Health and Social Care Partnerships and Local Authorities as well as a number of other organisations.

COSLA produces charging guidance for non-residential social care support , which is reviewed and updated annually. Under Section 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 local authorities may charge for the care it provides, such as day centre services, however the charges to these services should not exceed the cost of the service.

The Scottish Government also provides separate guidance to health and social care partnerships relating to Free Personal Care .

The Charging for Residential Accommodation Guidance (“CRAG”) provides advice to local authorities relating to assessing the ability to pay for residential care home charges.

The National Assistance (Assessment of Resources) Amendment Regulations place a duty on local authorities to assess a person’s ability to pay for residential accommodation.

The COSLA Non-residential charging guidance provides equivalent advice on financial assessments for determining non-residential care charges.

The number of planning practitioners employed in planning departments in local authorities is not held centrally. The member may be interested to know that the RTPI has published research which states that the number of staff members in planning authorities has reduced by over 25% since 2009.

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/3314972/Resourcing%20the%20Planning%20System%20-%20RTPI%20Scotland%20Key%20Trends%20and%20Findings%202019.pdf

However, Planning Authorities have from 2012-13 up to 2017-18 provided information on the number of staff employed in planning departments in their Planning Performance Framework (PPF) Reports. It should be noted that the information provided is inconsistent due to different interpretations and structures of Planning Authorities across Scotland. For this reason Planning Authorities stopped providing this information as part of the PPF in 2018-19.

The latest ISD statistics for quarter ending September 2019, show the median wait for ongoing ENT outpatient appointments for patients aged 16 and under is 27 days and for inpatient/daycase treatment is 159 days.

The Commission published an updated Decision Paper on Asset Replacement in summer 2019 which highlighted the need for increased investment in the 2021-27, and subsequent regulatory periods, to renew Scottish Water’s assets in order to maintain current levels of service and meet the climate change challenge. Following this, further work was required with industry stakeholders to establish the impact on prices of these levels of investment and the developing understanding of Ministers’ expectations for the industry and the challenges Scottish Water faces. The Commission has therefore proposed a further update on the prospects for prices in February 2020, following the publication of Ministers’ final draft Principles of Charges and Objectives, and Scottish Water’s Strategic Plan.

I have included the most recent proposed timetable for work for the next regulatory period which I hope you will find helpful.