Chamber and committees

The care and treatment of people with the dual diagnosis specified is in most areas tackled through close co-operation between substance abuse services and general adult psychiatry services. Substance abuse services are generally an integral part of wider mental health services. Some areas - for example Ayrshire and Arran - provide units and beds dedicated to the treatment of people with dual diagnosis. The extent to which services are integrated is determined by local need. Health boards, working with NHS Trusts, are responsible for assessing local health needs and for providing services to meet them.

There are no guidelines existing as to weekly provision of Speech and Language Therapy by the NHSiS for autistic children of pre school age.

Children with autism require a multidisciplinary team approach which would include speech and language therapy. Following referral, each child is assessed and provision made according to their individual needs.

It is for the local authorities and health boards to decide how best to meet their statutory duties in relation to children's health and education. The Executive has issued guidance and advice including the Special Educational Needs Manual of Good Practice. The Executive will also support the Scottish Society for Autism, and the National Autistic Society, in the creation of a national service network for autistic spectrum disorders, as recommended in the recently published Review of Learning Disability Services Report. The network will help to improve awareness and understanding of autism and provide access to specialist knowledge, expertise and training.

This information is not held centrally.

As recommended in the report of the Learning Disability Review, the Scottish Society for Autism and the National Autistic Society are co-ordinating the establishment of a national service network to improve awareness and understanding of the needs of people with autistic spectrum disorder. The network will provide access to specialist knowledge and training in health and other fields.

The report also recommended establishing a Scottish Centre for Learning Disabilities and that its remit should include support of the Scottish service network for people with autistic spectrum disorder and the delivery of training. A service specification for the centre is currently being developed.

Responsibility for ensuring that health staff have the training they need lies with the employing Trust or board.

The National Special Educational Needs Advisory Forum, chaired by Peter Peacock, is reviewing all aspects of the Record of Needs process, including appeal procedures.

An education authority has a statutory duty to establish which children or young persons in their area have pronounced, specific, or complex special educational needs which require continuing review. This duty applies to children of school age or who are at least two years of age and have come to the attention of the authority as having or appearing to have special educational needs. An authority is required to open and keep a Record of Needs for such children and young people.

If an authority fails in its duty an individual can complain to Scottish Ministers under section 70 of the 1980 Act; or complain to the Local Government Ombudsman; or, if they have title and interest, take action through the courts by Judicial Review.

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency is responsible for the administration of the NHS Superannuation Scheme. The agency is having a new computer system developed and has consequently been unable to provide scheme members, including general practitioners, with a statement of their benefit entitlement since December 1997. The system development is nearing completion and the agency expects to meet its target to issue scheme members with benefit statements this year.

Patient registration figures at 31 May 2000 indicate that there has been an overall decrease of 1.7% in the number of children registered on the NHS with a general dental practitioner compared to the position in May 1999. The percentage of young children who are being registered with a general dental practitioner has risen by the same percentage over this period. Children do not register for treatment with a community dentist.

A number of measures are currently in operation. Scottish Ministers are continuing to approve salaried dentist posts for areas where patients are experiencing difficulty in obtaining treatment on the NHS. Enhanced monthly capitation fees are paid to dentists who register young children from deprived areas on the NHS. The Scottish Dental Access Initiative offers grants to dentists establishing or expanding NHS practices in areas of unmet patient demand or high oral health need.

Rises in confirmed notifications of meningococcal infection over the winter of 1999-2000 were associated with the unusually large outbreak of influenza, a well-recognised association. On 14 January the Executive issued a press release, SE0059/2000, confirming this and urging vigilance to identify early signs of meningococcal infection and urging parents to bring their children forward when invited to receive vaccination against meningococcal group C infection.

The Executive is meeting the costs of the meningococcal C immunisation programme which began in November last year, and which is aimed at reducing numbers of cases of group C meningococcal infection. The cost of the programme is £31 million over the three years to 2001-02.

The Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) has recently implemented an enhanced surveillance programme, in liaison with the Scottish Meningococcal and Pneumococcal Reference Laboratory (Stobhill), to study in detail the effects of the vaccination programme and to allow targeting of other interventions as appropriate or which may be available in the future.

Reported levels of infection have now declined to low levels in accordance with what would normally be expected at this time of year.