Chamber and committees

Local government is fully committed to making an appropriate financial contribution to the Reshaping Care and Early Years Change Funds. The Scottish Government continues to work with local government to enable decisions on contributions from respective local authorities, but does not centrally hold definitive information for the total contribution from local government. Local government has made no financial contribution to the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund.

The Joint Improvement Team (JIT) is currently carrying out a mid-year review of 2012-13 Reshaping Care Change Plans, and will report its findings to the Delivery Group on Health and Community Care in due course. The purpose of the entire Early Years and Reducing Reoffending Change Funds is to support and deliver prevention and early intervention.

The percentage of 2013-14 Scottish budget committed to the three change funds, including contributions from local government and NHS boards, is: (a) 0.352% (£100 million) to the Reshaping Care for Older People Fund; (b) 0.234% (£66.5 million) to the Early Years Change Fund; and (c) 0.007% (£2 million) to the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund. The change funds do not represent total spend on preventative activity.

Details of the UK Budget consequentials and other agreed transfers prior to, and post, the 2011 Scottish Spending Review follow:

The Scottish Government, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS boards are taking forward a number of actions in order to deliver safe, effective, person-centred care every time for older people in acute hospitals.

We are working with NHS boards and clinical experts to improve care for people with cognitive impairment, to reduce and manage falls and to improve pressure area care, nutritional care and care co-ordination.

We are training 300 NHS staff as Dementia Champions and have supported Alzheimer Scotland to appoint a Dementia Nurse Consultant to each NHS board. Other work focuses on personal information documentation, environmental improvements, capacity and consent issues and staff training.

I expect boards to implement their post-inspection action plans as a matter of urgency.

Prescribing costs are funded from NHS board baseline budget allocations provided by the Scottish Government.

Territorial NHS boards received a 2.9% increase in baseline funding in 2012-13. Subject to Scottish Parliament approval, territorial NHS boards will receive increases in baseline funding of 3.3% and 3.1% in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. It is for NHS boards to determine how best to utilise baseline funding to meet the healthcare needs of their resident population.

The increase in baseline funding provided to territorial NHS boards in 2011-12 included £57 million to meet the projected cost of the abolition of prescription charges. This is a recurring source of funding for NHS boards and is thus included in their baseline budgets in future years.

The Scottish Government continually considers risks from changes in reserved policy when carrying out its devolved responsibilities.

While the UK Government has begun to provide a greater level of detail on its welfare reforms there are still significant gaps in our knowledge which hinder our ability to undertake robust analysis in this area. However, as more details are made available we are building up a better picture of the impact of the reforms on Scottish individuals and households. We hope that this work can inform how best the Scottish Government, with its partners, can respond to these changes within the current constitutional settlement.

Around 7,500 young people will be supported towards and into work as a result of the announcements made to date on the Youth Employment Strategy Fund.

These opportunities will be provided through interventions such as Community Jobs Scotland, The Third Sector Challenge Fund, Employment Recruitment Incentives and local authority delivered interventions.

In addition, we expect around 15,000 young people will benefit from other sources of Scottish Government or European funding.

This information is not held centrally. I will ask the Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland to write to you with the information you have requested.

The £30 million Youth Employment Strategy funding has been allocated as follows:

£1.5 million over three years to support 1,000 of the most disadvantaged young people, including care leavers, young carers and young ex-offenders;

£6 million to support Community Jobs Scotland in 2012-13;

£2.5 million for a challenge fund to support social enterprises and the third sector provide opportunities to young unemployed people, and

£9 million for six local authorities with particular youth unemployment challenges.

There is £11 million available for the period April 2013 to March 2015.