Chamber and committees

Following enactment of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, the Scottish Parliament approved the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, prepared by Scottish Natural Heritage under the terms of the Act to provide guidance to all interested parties on the responsibilities of land managers and of those exercising access rights on land and water.

I understand that guidance on the right of access to inland water, taking account of the variety of legitimate uses of, and interests in, rivers and other freshwater bodies, is being prepared by a group including the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA), the Scottish Canoe Association, the Paths for All Partnership and Scottish Natural Heritage. This guidance titled Using Inland Water Responsibly is expected to be available before the end of this year.

As part of the community empowerment agenda, we have awarded £250,000 to the Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS) over a two year period to take forward the action points within the Community Empowerment Action Plan (CEAP) on community ownership of assets.

In addition, the Scottish Government, in partnership with COSLA and the Association of Scottish Community Councils (ASCC), are currently in discussions with two local authority areas to identify and negotiate potential Community Council Pilot Projects which will focus on management of a local authority controlled asset in that area.

In support of their three regional centres (Clydebank, South Queensferry and Aberdeen), the Better Health, Better Care action plan, published in December 2007, tasked NHS 24 to work towards establishing local services within all mainland health board areas. NHS 24 are seeking to establish this commitment further by developing centre in the Island NHS boards.

The following table provides details of the progress against this action.

Health Board Area	Details of Local Service
NHS Highland	Inverness local centre launched in 2005 and co-located with local out-of-hours services and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
NHS Grampian	Service delivered from within Aberdeen Regional Centre.
NHS Tayside	Dundee local centre launched in 2005 and co-located with local out-of-hours services.
NHS Lanarkshire	East Kilbride local centre launched in 2005 and co-located with local out-of-hours services.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	Kilmarnock local centre launched in 2005 and co-located with local out-of-hours services.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	Dumfries local centre launched in 2005 and located within Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.
NHS Fife	Scottish Emergency Dental Service (SEDS) launched in 2007, based in Glenrothes and Glenrothes local centre launched in October 2009, co-located with SEDS.
NHS Lothian	Dedicated NHS 24 nursing resource located in South Queensferry Regional Centre to respond to Lothian based callers, launched in May 2006.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Glasgow local centre launched in June 2008, co-located with Glasgow Out-of Hours Service and Scottish Ambulance Service in Cardonald.
NHS Borders	Melrose local centre launched in May 2009 and located within Borders General Hospital.
NHS Forth Valley	Falkirk local centre launched in December 2008 and co-located with local out-of-hours services.
NHS Orkney	Local centre in development and scheduled to become operational from spring 2010 within Balfour Hospital.
NHS Shetland	Discussions at an early stage for a future service.
NHS Western Isles	Discussions at an early stage for a future service.

 

The aim of developing local service is to build NHS 24 capacity, aid the recruitment of specialist nurses and improve the performance of the NHS 24 service. These centres support the development of close relationships with the host territorial health boards and aim to improve patient satisfaction levels through better local service delivery. They afford the opportunity for flexible working and improved work-life balance for the nursing workforce within these localities.

All these sites have resilient telephony and IT links, and operate as part of an integrated national network. The telephony design is aimed at ensuring patient calls are answered at their closest regional centre and if a consultation with a clinician is required the call is routed to their designated local centre. However, in the case of serious and urgent calls, if a local nurse is unavailable within a pre-determined timescale, the call will automatically look for the first available nurse to ensure patient safety is maintained at all times.

NHS 24 is also working with the Scottish Ambulance Service on plans to relocate the East of Scotland Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre within NHS 24''s regional centre at Norseman House in South Queensferry. This relocation is due for completion in early 2010.

This follows the successful co-location in 2008 of NHS 24''s Glasgow local centre, NHS 24 headquarters, the Scottish Ambulance Service''s West of Scotland Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde''s out-of-hours service control centre at Cardonald.

Improvements to the detection and treatment of depression, and consequent care, have been aided by the recently enhanced GP contract. This contract provides additional resources for practices to make objective assessments to address the severity of depression and provide appropriate information on interventions, such as self help and life style advice.

We are working with NHS Education for Scotland and NHS boards to improve availability of psychological therapies for all patient groups, including older people.

Activity on clinical identification, diagnosis and treatment across age ranges includes ensuring care pathway standards, increasing access to psychological therapies and reducing reliance on antidepressants.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government has funded NHS Health Scotland to work with partners “ namely Age Concern Scotland and the Mental Health Foundation “ to address mental health in later life. The work involved focuses on mental health promotion and prevention of common mental health problems in older people, this including depression.

Data on how many vacancies exist for psychologists in each NHS board is not currently collected centrally. The NHS Education for Scotland and Information Services Division Psychology Workforce Planning project does plan to initiate recording and reporting of psychology vacancy data but no specific date for commencement has yet been set.

Information on staff in post trends, Agenda for Change bandings, area of work and target age of patients seen for psychologists can be found in the National Services Scotland, Information Services Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1.html.

The Penrose Inquiry opening statement was made by Lord Penrose in March 2009. The terms of reference show that Lord Penrose will report as soon as practicable. The conclusion of the Inquiry is in his hands, as Chair of the Public Inquiry.

The Scottish Government is co-operating fully with the public inquiry. The Penrose Inquiry published a call for evidence in June 2009 and is currently gathering evidence. We will provide a range of documents to the Inquiry dating from the early 1970s to the present.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28916 on 13 November 2009, announcing the addition of three further deaths to be investigated by the Penrose Inquiry. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that psychological therapies can make to improve the quality of life for older people with mental illness. That is why we have a specific commitment to increasing the availability of evidence-based psychological therapies for all age groups. Part of this commitment''s remit focuses on the delivery of psychological services to older people; including the delivery of care to those who are housebound, and those in care homes.

We are aware of the low numbers of psychologists, but have been actively working with NES to align Doctoral level training posts with Older Peoples services, to develop additional modules in the delivery of therapy to Older People for the shorter MSc courses for psychologists, and to develop training for a range of other clinicians to deliver psychologically-based interventions with this population.

Work is also underway to re-structure the role of the psychologists to ensure that more time is spent supporting others in the delivery of psychological care, thus increasing service capacity.

The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that psychological therapies can make to improve the quality of life for people with dementia. That is why we have a specific commitment to deliver on our commitment of increasing the availability of evidence-based psychological therapies for all ages to meet patients'' needs.

To achieve this we are working with NHS Scotland, NHS boards and their partners to improve and increase service capacity and have produced a tool which NHS boards can use to review the best available evidence-based psychological therapy when considering which psychological intervention is most appropriate. This includes dementia.

In addition, we have funded NES to support the training and development of staff in a range of evidence-based psychological therapy approaches.

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The Scottish Drugs Misuse Database (SDMD), which is being rolled out across Scotland, will track individuals as they progress through treatment. The intention is that overtime this database will be able to supply useful information on the effectiveness of treatment including recovery outcomes.

Data on the number of people entering alcohol services for treatment is not held centrally. However, the Scottish Alcohol Needs Assessment research report estimated that, across Scotland in 2006-07, approximately 17,000 people accessed alcohol treatment services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26679 on 17 September 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The average length of stay for all long-stay residents in care homes for older people who left the care home during the years 2002-03 to 2006-07 are given in the following table:

Care Homes for Older People, Complete length of stay “ 2002-03 to 2006-07

Year	Average Length of Stay (Years)
2002-03	2.4
2003-04	2.5
2004-05	2.4
2005-06	2.6
2006-07	2.5

Source: Scottish Care Homes Census.

For each financial year, the census recorded all long-stay residents who died or were discharged from the care home and calculated the average length of stay for these people.

Further information about the census is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/02/20094539/7.

Prior to 2002, care homes were identified as either residential care homes or nursing care homes. Census data was collected separately for both types of homes with nursing data excluding information on length of stay. On that basis it would not be comparable with the figures for 2002-03 onwards.

Despite increases in the numbers of older people, because of our policies to enable more vulnerable people to be cared for at home, the total care home population and length of stay has remained relatively stable.