- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 2 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made towards the provision of specialist health care, as referred to in The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities.
Answer
Provision of specialisthealth care support is a matter for health boards and local authorities, whoprovide such services.
They are aided in this taskby Promoting Health, Supporting Inclusion published by the Executive in July 2002. It is aboutthe contribution that nurses andmidwives can make to the care and support of people with learning disabilities,and aims to ensurethat all nurses and midwives recognise the particular needs of people withlearning disabilities, and work towards promoting and improving their health.
We have asked NHS Health Scotland toundertake a needs assessment of the health needs of children and adults withlearning disabilities in Scotland, to inform the development and commissioning ofservices for the future. This is expected in the autumn.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 2 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the working group established to examine the implications for housing associations of the withdrawal of section 54 of the Housing Act 1988 considered the particular circumstances of non-fully-mutual housing co-operatives.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:A working group wasestablished to examine the financial impact on the housing association sectorof the withdrawal of section 54. The working party was not requiredspecifically to consider the particular circumstances of non-fully-mutualhousing co-operatives, instead they were required to consider the financialimpact on all organisations who retained non charitable rules.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made towards ensuring that more children are educated in mainstream schools, as referred to in The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities.
Answer
We have legislated for theinclusion of all children in mainstream schools, subject to certain prescribedcircumstances. The Executive will monitor the impact of the new legislationwhich took effect from 1 August 2003.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what support local authorities are statutorily required to provide for adults with learning disabilities who wish to remain in their own home.
Answer
Local authorities have aduty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to assess the needs of, and provideappropriate services to, people who appear to need them.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made towards the foundation of a Scottish centre for learning disability, as referred to in The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities.
Answer
The Scottish Consortium forLearning Disability was established during 2001 with funding from the ScottishExecutive, and officially launched by Malcolm Chisholm, then Deputy Ministerfor Health and Community Care, on 5 October 2001.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it expects local authorities to provide for adults with learning difficulties who wish to remain in their own home.
Answer
We expect local authoritiesto secure a range of services appropriate to an individual’s needs across therange of community care client groups, including learning disabilities
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has commissioned a quality of life survey for people with learning disabilities.
Answer
No, but the informationobtained from the new statistical return about learning disabilities referredto in the answer given to question S2W-1890, today will, over time, enabletrends to be established on a number of aspects that relate closely to thequality of life of people with learning disabilities.All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that best practice in dealing with people with learning disabilities is shared amongst local authorities.
Answer
We are keen to ensuredissemination of best practice. The principles of The same as you? A reviewof services for people with learning disabilities, published by the Scottish Executive, give a lead on good practice, and thatdocument has a number of examples of good practice.
We have provided funding forthe establishment of the Scottish Consortium forLearning Disability. Part of the consortium’s remitis to:
· foster and develop best practice, and make it accessible. This isavailable from the consortium’s homepage (Good Practice in The same as you?) on its website at www.scld.org.uk Thisbrings together information on best practicefrom across Scotland for everyone, including local authorities.
· develop a skilled and confidentworkforce by improving training standards and providing training. Localauthority staff attend such training. Allthe consortium’s courses have peoplewith learning disabilities and family carers as co-trainers.
We have establishedthe Partnership in Practice Network,comprising representativesfrom local authorities and the NHS across Scotland. This meets on aregular three-monthly basis to discuss current issues and to share experience,and it provides a forum for exchanging and developing good practice.
We haveestablished the Scottish Social Services Council, whose function includes toraise the standard of practice and to promote the education and training of thesocial care workforce, including those working in local authorities.
We ran three majorconferences on learning disabilities in 2002, looking at best practice andexperience in learning disability databases, autistic spectrum disorders andhospital closures. These had significant attendance form local authorities acrossScotland.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many non-fully-mutual housing co-operatives have applied to alter their status to become a housing association or a fully-mutual housing co-operative since 1 May 1999 and, of these, how many have made such a change, giving dates of application and change of status in each case.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:
Two non-fully-mutual housingco-operatives have altered their status to become housing associations – one inMarch 2000 and another in April 2003. A further housing co-operative in Glasgow isproposing to become a housing association and has applied to do so in August2003.
In addition, two non-fully-mutualco-operatives changed their status by deciding to merge with other housingassociations through transfers of engagements in October and December 1999.
- Asked by: Linda Fabiani, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 1 September 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress it has made towards ensuring the provision of mainstream employment services, as referred to in The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities.
Answer
Employment has been one of the initial priorities for the national The same as you? Implementation Group.It established a sub-group to look at employment, and its report is expected indue course .
