Chamber and committees

Published information on headcount and whole time equivalent epilepsy nurse specialists broken down by NHS board can be found on the workforce statistics website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health%2DTopics/Workforce/Nursing%2Dand%2DMidwifery/Clinical%20Nurse%20Specialists%202010.xls

Data on the employment history of individual staff working in the NHS is not held centrally.

Payment of staff is the responsibility of individual NHS boards.

The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) issued joint guidance on National Eligibility Criteria and Waiting Times for the Personal and Nursing Care of Older People on 28 September 2009. All 32 local authorities have confirmed that their local arrangements for access to social care services and timescales for access to personal and nursing care services are consistent with the guidance.

Scottish Government continues to support the aim of the COSLA Charging Guidance for Non-Residential Social Care Services to achieve consistency. The guidance is not intended to produce uniformity but to provide discretion to councils to establish their own charging policies in order to align with local priorities and local needs.

COSLA are responsive to public concern about the variations in local authorities approach to charging for home care. COSLA undertake annual charging surveys, and have developed a community of practice to enable councils to benchmark charging practice. A short life working group has recently been set up to take forward work on developing new guidance with a view to implementation by spring 2012. This working Group will include representatives from a range of stakeholders, including Disabled People's Organisations, National Carers Organisations and Organisations representing Older People.

I refer the member to the question S4W-02403 answered on 15 September. 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.

Six staff transferred from HM Inspectorate of Education to Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland on 1 April 2011.

One hundred and seventy-nine staff transferred from HM Inspectorate of Education to Education Scotland on 1 July 2011.

Only permanent and fixed-term appointment staff have been counted. These figures do not include sessional/fees paid staff, agency workers or staff seconded from another employer.

Achieving our Potential is the Scottish Government and COSLA policy framework for tackling poverty. It includes a set of commitments and expectations for central and local government, the third sector and wider society which outlines the opportunities and actions which will help reduce poverty and income inequality in Scotland. It does not include targets.

The Scottish Government measures progress against reducing poverty through its national poverty indicator within the National Performance Framework and the Solidarity Purpose Target. Information can be accessed at http://scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/indicators/poverty and http://scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/purposes/solidarity.

Membership of the Tackling Poverty Board is outlined within the November 2009 Tackling Poverty Board paper remit and membership at http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/tacklingpovertyboardpapers.aspx.

The Tackling Poverty Board last met on Wednesday 13 April 2011. Board papers can be found at http://www.employabilityinscotland.com/tacklingpovertyboardpapers.aspx.

Information on the numbers of applications and awards and total spend for community care grants and crisis loans for Scotland in 2009-10 is published in Annex C, Table 1 of Local support to replace Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans for living expenses in England, available at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/social-fund-localisation-response.pdf.

The associated spreadsheet Social Fund spend by local authority http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/social-fund-spend-by-local-authority.xls has information for individual Scottish local authorities.

These are both available at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2011/local-support-replace-ccg-cl.shtml.

The Scottish Government Tackling Poverty budget for 2011-12 is £5,075,000. It supports the implementation of the approach set out in Achieving our Potential.

Scottish Government and COSLA social policy frameworks have set out clear expectations relating to tackling inequality. Responsibility for the delivery of services and interventions lies with community planning partnerships, funded through the Local Government Settlement. Local authorities and their community planning partners have been encouraged and supported to make best use of their collective mainstream resources to increase the pace of progress in tackling poverty in our communities. In addition, the Fairer Scotland Fund provided £435 million to local authorities between 2008-11 to progress outcomes linked to assisting people living in poverty, tackling high levels of multiple deprivation concentrated in communities, overcoming barriers to work and tackling health inequalities.