Chamber and committees

Delivering person-centred care is a strategic priority for NHSScotland and the Scottish Government. Working in partnership with people who use health and social care services, their families and carers, to deliver care which meets their needs, is a vital part of our 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care.

Occupational Therapy is one of the twelve Allied Health Professions (AHPs) regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council with staff working across health, social care and housing. Occupational Therapists take a ‘whole person’ approach with people, addressing their health and wellbeing to support them to achieve their potential and what matters to them. Occupational Therapists are ‘dual trained’ in physical and mental health and can therefore work across both at point of qualification.

This professional ethos, knowledge and skillset underpins Occupational Therapy in all settings where staff work, so that a person centred approach is fundamental to interventions and support. The focus on ‘occupation’ – meaningful and purposeful activities unique to each individual – means that Occupational Therapists are well placed to devise, deliver and lead on personalised approaches to care. The developing ‘general specialist’ and Advanced Practitioner roles are seeing occupational therapy make a greater impact in empowering communities around prevention and wellbeing.

The Allied Health Professions Active and Independent Living Programme (AILP), which concludes in 2020, put the personal outcomes approach at the heart of its vision and this has enabled occupational therapists to lead and develop new and innovative personalised care responses. This includes delivering a tiered approach within children’s’ services which focus on the child or young person’s wellbeing which has seen support delivered closer, faster and more effectively to the child/young person without an increase in waiting times; work within forensic and secure settings equipping prisoners to develop daily living skills and thereby preventing re-offending; developing support for people around work – getting into, staying and getting back into employment – with the positive impact on health and wellbeing, and leading on aspects of health and social care integration particularly around support for older adults.

The funding for the extension of Free Personal Care was part of an additional £160 million health portfolio funding that was made available via Local Authorities to support social care and integration as part of the 2019-20 Budget. It is for statutory partners to manage their budgets and allocate the total financial resources available to them, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

The funding for the extension of Free Personal Care was linked to the stipulation that local authority social care budgets for allocation to Integration Authorities and funding for school counselling services this year must be at least £160 million more than in 2018-19. This ensures that even where areas have received funding for Free Personal Care that is beyond their currently projected levels of demand in this first year, funding for social care overall must increase.

This settlement means that personal care is now free for anyone in Scotland who is assessed as eligible. Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to ensure that personal care is no longer charged to the individual.

The following table provides the allocation by Local Authority for the extension of Free Personal Care to under 65s

Data on medicines used in mental health, including antidepressants, is published annually by Information Services Division in their Prescribing Statistics - Medicines used in Mental Health publication. The next report will be published on 8 th October 2019, and will be available at: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Publications/

The specific information requested is not held centrally. Information held nationally on delayed discharges does not include diagnosis information and it is therefore not possible to identify people with learning disabilities who have experienced a delayed discharge.

The following table shows the number of privately run adult care homes supporting one or more long stay adult resident(s) with learning disabilities, as reported via the annual care home census, as at 31 March 2017, the latest year for which data are available.

Number of Private Care Homes for Adults with one or more Long Stay Adult Resident(s) with Learning Disabilities, 31 March 2017:

The following table shows the estimated number of long stay care home residents with a learning disability, aged 18 years and older, in Scotland as at 31 March 2017, the latest time period for which data are available.

Estimated Number of Long Stay Residents with a Learning Disability, 31 March 2017

The purpose of the Workplace Equality Fund, launched in 2018 is not as a job creation scheme but is to support employers to engage in initiatives to reduce workplace inequalities and address long standing barriers particular groups face in entering and progressing in the labour market. Activity has included for example, people with learning disabilities testing online recruitment systems of private businesses, employers embracing a family friendly working approach and business practices informed by volunteers who have experienced mental ill health. 

The focus of the fund therefore was to support system change rather than to create jobs.

The 22 projects approved under the fund benefitted individuals with the protected characteristics of age, sex, ethnicity and disability. For example, 23 individuals benefitted from internships including 5 minority ethnic women and 20 women workers who were supported to improve their leadership skills to support their progression.

Housing Statistics for Scotland details the total number and the cost of housing adaptations delivered by each local authority. Information on Scottish Government-funded housing adaptations carried out by Registered Social Landlords is provided to SPICe, as we committed to providing an annual update of information about Scottish Government-funded housing adaptations as part of our responses to PQs S4W-28622 on 9 December 2015 and S5W-01638 on 16 August 2016.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

We plan to carry out a staff travel survey in 2020.

This information is not held.