This information is not held centrally.

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.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) element of the GP contract already recognises obesity and weight management within a number of the clinical indicators, including mental health and diabetes. Any changes to QOF clinical indicators are considered by an advisory committee led by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and are then subject to UK negotiation and agreement.

The commitment in Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight to ensure that cost-effective and appropriate weight management services and treatments are available for patients in Scotland include investing in resources for the continuing professional development of primary care professionals to develop a better understanding of obesity, its management and treatment.

The Obesity Treatment Subgroup of the National Planning Forum (NPF) is reviewing the evidence on clinical pathways and will provide options to the NPF to facilitate agreement on pan Scotland approaches to enable equitable access to weight management interventions.

A health inequalities impact assessment workshop was held and is seeking additional evidence to find out whether services meet the needs of all population groups.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40069 14 March 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government will continue to promote the comprehensive framework which is in place to make sure learners with additional support needs including social, emotional or mental health needs, short or long-term, access appropriate support in partnership with relevant agencies, under the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004 as amended.

Health for all children 4: Guidance on Implementation in Scotland sets out that children should be weighed within the first 24 hours, within the first 10 days of life, at six to eight weeks, three months, four months, 12 to 13 months, three to five years and on entry to primary school. Body Mass Index should be recorded for public health monitoring purposes every three years. The 24 to 30 month review introduced in A New Look at Hall 4, The Early Years, Good Health for Every Child recommends including nutrition, growth and weight.

NHS boards may weigh children at other stages, but this is not readily identifiable from centrally held data and may be in a frequency other than annual. In addition, information recorded on the Child Health Surveillance Programme school system shows that in school year 2009-10 some NHS boards weighed children as part of health reviews in primary 7 and secondary 2.

In order to ascertain a patient’s nutritional status, and whether they have swallowing difficulties, an assessment must be made when a patient is admitted to hospital.

When screening identifies compromised nutritional and/or swallowing difficulties other services will become involved, such as speech and language therapists, dentists, occupational therapists and psychiatrists, in addition to dietitians.

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has committed over £1.75 million to ensure malnutrition screening of all patients, the funding of nutrition champions in every NHS board and the development of a toolkit to assist all staff dealing with food, fluid and nutrition from catering staff to senior charge nurses.

There is no national screening programme for heart disease in Scotland. However, the Keep Well and Well North programme of inequalities targeted health checks, which has been operating in some areas of Scotland since 2006, has focussed on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors. From 2012, this programme will be mainstreamed across NHSScotland. The programme will be targeted at individuals aged between 40 and 64, with no previous diagnosis of stroke, diabetes or CVD, who live in Scotland’s most deprived communities. The programme will also identify carers and specific vulnerable populations who, evidence suggests, are at increased risk of CVD.

The number of clients with mental health problems who have received self-directed support for community care in the last five years, also expressed as a percentage of all recipients of self-directed support is provided in the following table:

Number and Percentage of Mental Health Clients Receiving Self-Directed Support (Direct payments)¹, 2006 to 2010:

Source: Self-directed support (direct payments) survey, Scottish Government.

Notes:

1. The self-directed support (direct payments) return is limited to the collection of direct payments information. Direct payments allow clients to purchase and manage for themselves some or all of the care they have been assessed as needing. This is only one of the different types of self-direct support currently available that allow people increasing flexibility, choice, and control over the care they receive.

2. Includes 97 dementia clients. Prior to 2010, the dementia client group was not collected separately and may have been included under either “Mental Health Problems” or “Other” client groups.

Latest publication: self-directed support (direct payments), Scotland, 2010 at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/09/27093422/0.