Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

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.

No transfers of established inspection staff took place from the Care Commission, Social Work Inspection Agency and HM Inspectorate of Education on 1 April 2010. These bodies were still operating until 31 March 2011.

However, as at 1 April 2011, the following established inspection staff transferred to the new Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland from those bodies:

Two hundred and sixty four established inspection staff from the Care Commission; 18 established inspection staff from SWIA; and six established inspection staff from HMIE.

No transfers of established staff took place from the Social Work Inspection Agency to Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland or Healthcare Improvement Scotland on 1 April 2010. SWIA was still operating until 31 March 2011, and the new scrutiny bodies SCSWIS and HIS were not established until 1 April 2011.

However, on 1 April 2011 SWIA transferred 25 (24.76 full-time equivalent) established staff to SCSWIS. No staff transferred from SWIA to HIS at that time.

Data on the number of kinship carers of looked after children is not held centrally.

As of 31 July 2010 there were 3,172 children living in kinship care arrangements.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01771 on 5 August 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.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has advised that the cost of temporary and agency staff since 2007-08 has been:

The budget for 2011-12 is currently £20,000 but this figure is subject to revision over the course of the year. The figures are not held centrally broken down between temporary and agency staff.

The guidance on National Eligibility Criteria and Waiting Times for the Personal and Nursing Care of Older People includes specific reference to moderate and low level needs and the provision of preventative or other support services is addressed. The guidance states that councils and their partners should consider whether the provision of services or equipment or other interventions might help prevent or reduce the risk of an individual’s needs becoming more intensive. It also asks councils to ensure that they have in place clear arrangements for meeting, managing or reviewing the needs of individuals who are not assessed as being at “critical” or “substantial” risk, including provision of preventative or other support services appropriate to the clients’ needs.

We have also invested £70 Million in the Change Fund to assist Reshaping Care for Older people to ensure we accelerate the progress of shifting the balance from acute settings to the care in the community and get better at early intervention.

The view of the Scottish Government is that conditions will apply on the date the conditions come into force although ministers could choose to commence a particular condition in such a way that it applied only to licences granted after a specified date.

The Scottish Government has asked NHS Health Scotland to lead on monitoring and evaluating the implementation and impact of current alcohol strategy in Scotland. A study specifically on implementation of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 was started in January 2010 and is due to finish in March 2013. A first interim report was published in June 2011.