Chamber and committees

£289,809 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2012-13, with £175,000 allocated by the Scottish Government and £114,809 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

£518,082 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2013-14, with £482,843 allocated by the Scottish Government and £35,239 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The allocation to Healthcare Improvement Scotland for 2014-15 has yet to be agreed, but is likely to be similar to the 2013-14 allocation.

Further allocations have been made to NHS boards to support their participation in the person-centred portfolio, including the Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative. Allocations have also been made to NHS Education for Scotland for a national training and workforce development plan to support the portfolio, and to the Health and Social Care Alliance for the People Powered Health and Wellbeing programme, which brings third sector expertise to the implementation of the Collaborative.

In 2012-13, the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £128,555, providing four whole-time members of staff, and non-pay costs of £161,254, which provided for:

Development of the Care Experience survey tool and Patient Opinion subscription

National Learning Session 1 and additional meeting costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning session.

In 2013-2014 the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £187,689 providing four members of staff, and non-pay costs of £328,712 providing:

Care Experience survey tool support and development, Patient Opinion subscription and programme evaluation

Nation Learning Sessions 2 and 3 and additional meetings costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning sessions.

The aims of the Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative are as follows:

Raise the profile of person-centred approaches to care across Scotland including staff health and wellbeing.

Develop and test a range of evidence-based interventions and approaches designed to improve person-centred care.

Focus on what can be done now to improve services.

Provide reliable opportunities to personalise support for every person all of the time.

Encourage sharing of ideas and approaches between people who use services and people who provide them.

Promote the use of approaches for obtaining feedback from people who use services.

Use feedback from people who use services to drive improvement.

Provide a framework to measure improvement.

Participating staff from across NHS Scotland will be able to demonstrate how they have introduced new approaches to health and care and how they are using feedback from people to identify and implement improvements to care. The Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme will also be a measure of change and improvement.

The Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain recommends a multidisciplinary approach to the delivery of care and treatment for people with chronic pain. As part of the data collection exercise carried out by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), boards were asked to provide information on current staffing in line with the specialities recommended within the model. The findings of the HIS report, Chronic Pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?, note that in some board areas not all of the recommended specialities were provided within a dedicated pain team.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

It is essential that clear care pathways are in place to ensure that people with chronic pain receive all elements of the care they need.

All NHS boards are required to include chronic pain improvement within their Local Delivery Plans for 2014. Progress will be monitored by the Scottish Government through the Annual Review process. The HIS report provides a benchmark from which boards can measure improvement and boards should take cognisance of the findings and its recommendations in the planning and delivery of services for people living with chronic pain.

Dependent on the issues raised as parliamentary questions arise, the policy directorate(s) contribution is determined on a case by case basis.

The Strategic Group on Women and Work was formed following the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012. The first meeting was on 27 March 2013 with subsequent meetings held on 26 June 2013, 30 October 2013, 26 February 2014, and 7 May 2014.

The remit of the group is to:

Agree the range of actions and recommendations from the Women’s Employment Summit;

Agree priorities across each commission and the timescales for action and by whom;

Advise on actions to further address the challenges raised, in particular how those outwith the Government could support change, e.g. employers, the third sector, communities and education and training sector;

Monitor implementation of the agreed plans, reviewing progress and challenging inaction;

Agree the content of Ministerial reports to Parliament on progress; and

The group will meet 3 or 4 times a year.

The Scottish Welfare Fund comprises of Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants.

The table below shows how many applications contained someone on a sanctioned benefit during the period 1 April to 31 December 2013.

For Community Care Grants, 31 applications in total contained someone who had been sanctioned. Of these 31, 12 applications were successful in receiving a Community Care Grant.

For Crisis Grants, 400 applications in total contained someone who had been sanctioned. Of these 400, 165 applications were successful in receiving a Crisis Grant.

The Scottish Welfare Fund guidance regarding sanctions changed in April 2014. The data in the above analysis pre-dates this change.

Statistics on the Scottish Welfare Fund can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf

The Scottish Government has no capacity to provide funding over and above the £55 million provided in the years 2013-15. The lifting of the cap on funding for discretionary housing payments (DHPs) will create additional flexibility for local authorities to supplement their DHP funds to meet any additional local priorities.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20200 on 31 March 2014. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Welfare Fund comprises of Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants.

The number of applications that were accepted and rejected by gender was previously answered in S4W-20605 on 2 May 2014. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The following tables show the number of applications which were accepted and rejected by gender of the main applicant and by local authority. Tables are provided separately for Community Care Grants and Crisis Grants.

Table 1: Community Care Grant Decisions by Gender of Main Applicant and Local Authority.

Note: All figures have been rounded to the nearest five applications.

Table 2: Crisis Grant Decisions by Gender of Main Applicant and Local Authority.

Note: All figures have been rounded to the nearest five applications.

Further statistics on the Scottish Welfare Fund can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf.