Chamber and committees

The provision of resettlement services (including assistance with furniture) for people moving into supported accommodation is a matter for the discretion of local authorities and landlords (as appropriate to the accommodation), taking account of the needs and wishes of individual service users.

No information is held centrally on the local provision of these services.

The Children Looked After Statistics collect information only on the number of children and young people in kinship care, reflecting the Scottish Government’s need to trace information about children and young people who require statutory intervention and care. Information on formal carers is held by local authorities, who are responsible for commissioning care.

There is no routine collection by the Scottish Government of children in informal looked after arrangements. An estimate of the total number of kinship carers will be possible from data provided by the 2011 census due later this year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05399 on 28 February 2012. 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 vast majority of the funding provided to local government by the Scottish Government, including the funding for kinship care allowances, is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03690 on 18 November 2011. 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.

No staff were lost due to compulsory redundancy by the Care Inspectorate or its predecessors’ since April 2010.

The Scottish Government has achieved significant progress with all local authorities now financially supporting kinship carers and we have won benefit concessions worth up to £50 a week.

We remain committed to working with local authorities to ensure that kinship carers receive the support they need.

The Scottish Government does not set rates for minimum allowances to kinship carers or foster carers but guidance issued in 2010 to support these regulations recommends using The Fostering Network’s recommended minimum allowances as a guide. Local authorities are best placed to make decisions about what is needed to support a particular child with a particular carer.

We remain committed to providing meaningful and sustainable financial support to kinship carers and we have achieved worthwhile progress with all local authorities now financially supporting kinship carers. We will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that kinship carers receive the support they need.

The Scottish Government has held back the allocation of around £20 million of Resource DEL consequentials available in 2012-13 because of a number of risks presented by the current economic and financial climate including, in particular, those presented by UK welfare reform and the unpredictability surrounding the eurozone. The government will announce decisions on the allocation of remaining consequentials in due course.

As previously indicated in the answer to S4W-03688 on 18 November 2011, all Care Inspectorate Inspectors have completed the Regulation of Care Award or are currently undertaking it. Currently, 12 Inspectors are studying for the Regulation of Care Award with expected completion dates between April and December 2012. A further 10 have completed the required study and are awaiting results in March 2012.

Three hundred inspectors have completed the Regulation of Care Award. Of these 300, 44 have since left the Care Inspectorate.

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.

Detailed information on rest facilities is not held centrally, but minimum standards on such facilities are detailed in HDL 2001-50, Living and Working Conditions for Doctors in Training.

All doctors have access to either dedicated mess facilities or staff rooms where they can take breaks during and after their shifts.

The majority of doctors in training now work on a shift system, similar to nursing and other staff. Rotas are constructed to meet the relevant contractual and legal requirements to ensure staff are well rested before, during and after periods of work.

No dedicated rest facilities are provided for any group of staff coming off night shift within the NHS but, if any member of staff has any concern about their fitness to travel home after a shift, this can be raised locally with their manager.

For those who still work on a traditional on-call rota, the majority of these are on call from home, with support in place to gain a minimum amount of rest time while on call which ensures that staff are well rested. Where on call from home is not possible, NHS boards provide dedicated on call rooms which must meet minimum standards as detailed in HDL 2001-50.

Any areas of concern can be raised with our new deal manager, who can arrange to inspect facilities to ensure that they meet the required minimum standards.