Chamber and committees

37 school building projects have already been announced as part of the Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme, including at least one project in every local authority area in Scotland. We will commence discussions with local authorities shortly to identify at least 18 more school projects for the third phase of the school building programme, focusing on those in the worst condition and suitability categories.

Changes were made to three of the 2008-09 HEAT targets following their publication.

The target to reduce the proportion of older people (aged 65+) who are admitted as an emergency inpatient was withdrawn following advice received at a Scottish Government/NHS conference in 2008 that the underlying policy aim (to reduce unnecessary hospital admission) was best achieved if the target focused on the reduction of bed days.

The other two targets on Quality Improvement Scotland (now Healthcare Improvement Scotland) clinical governance/risk management standards and improving the quality of healthcare experience were superseded by work to support the NHS to improve the quality of healthcare.

Details of HEAT targets for the years following 2008-09 can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/17273/targets.

The following table shows the number of emergency admissions of over-65s for the last five available years:

Further information is available from the ISD Scotland website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Inpatient-and-Day-Case-Activity/.

NHS Scotland: Number of Emergency Admissions for Patients Aged 65+

Source: ISD SMR01.

Note: All figures rounded to nearest 1,000.

Performance against HEAT targets is reported through the NHSScotland pages of the Scotland Performs website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/scotPerforms/partnerstories/NHSScotlandperformance.

Scotland Performs presents information on progress against each target by the year they are due for delivery, rather than the year they were set. Figures are provided on HEAT targets due for delivery from 2007-08 onwards.

A range of enhanced opportunities for local people to express their views on planning matters have already been delivered through planning reform.

The Scottish Government is also proactively seeking to further improve the consenting system and promote best practice, in particular by instigating and leading the European GP Wind Project. This EU-funded project identifies good practice in reconciling objectives on renewable energy with wider environmental objectives and in the active involvement of communities in planning and implementation.

The fact that Scotland is leading GP Wind speaks volumes for how we are viewed by our European neighbours, but also demonstrates our commitment to improvement, including around community engagement and consultation. By bringing together developers, regional and local government, environmental agencies and non-governmental organisations to share experiences, the project is developing a guide to good practice and a “how to” toolkit which the Scottish Government can use to further improve our practices.

The latest available information for sickness absence across NHSScotland is given in the following table. As can be seen, the rate of sickness absence has fallen from a high of 5.55% in 2007 to 4.75% in 2010 and this represents over 1 million more hours being available to NHSScotland.

These figures represent the hours lost to sickness absence as a percentage of the total available hours.

The absence rate for year ending 31 March 2011 will be published on 28 June 2011.

Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data is collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the “Background” section of the Workforce Statistics website at:

www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

The following table provides information on the number of people aged 65 and over who received care at home services provided or purchased by local authorities in each of the last five years. Care at home includes both personal and non-personal care services.

The central principle of the Reshaping Care for Older People programme is the Scottish Government’s objective to provide care and support for older people, as far as possible, within the community or another homely setting. This objective includes reducing the number of days that people over 75 years of age spend in hospital following emergency admission, as well as reducing unplanned admissions to hospital and improving anticipatory and preventative care.

The Change Fund for Older People’s Services (£70 million for Scotland in 2011-12) is being used by local partnerships (NHS boards, local authorities, third and independent sectors) as bridging finance to help bring about this change more quickly and effectively. The Scottish Government is supporting local partnerships, via the Joint improvement Team and Quality and Efficiency Support Team, as they develop and implement a range of actions to:

improve the health and wellbeing of older people at home;

support people who need additional support to remain at home, along with their carers;

ensure that decisions made at points of transition, including when an emergency admission to hospital is being considered, take account of all appropriate options, and

assure the quality of care and support at the time of discharge and beyond.

Taking action across the spectrum of activity and support in this way provides a sustainable approach to reducing emergency admissions and the length of stays in hospital associated with such admissions. Progress will be measured via the NHS HEAT system, and reported on Scotland Performs.

More broadly, integration of health and social care is a priority for the Scottish Government in this term, and work will be taken forward in the coming months to develop proposals that will improve support for older people in particular.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight (“the Obesity Route Map”) in February 2010. The aim in the route map is “the majority of Scotland’s population to be in a normal weight range (i.e. with a BMI 18.5 to 25) throughout adult life”.

This information is not held centrally.