- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of childcare staff (a) were qualified in 2005 and (b) are qualified in 2006 to (i) registration standards, (ii) SVQ level 2 and (iii) above SVQ level 2.
Answer
The information requested onstaff qualification levels for 2005 is given in table 1.11 of the Pre-School and Childcare Workforce Statistics 2005 publishedby Scottish Executive National Statistics in 2006, a copy of which is availablein the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39531).
Registration with the ScottishSocial Services Council requires that the worker holds or be working towards anappropriate early education and childcare qualification at SVQ level 2 or equivalentfor support workers, SVQ level 3 or equivalent for practitioners and SVQ level 4or equivalent for managers/lead practitioners. 68% of staff currently hold qualificationsat SVQ level 2 and above.
Information on workforce qualificationsfor 2006 has not yet been collected.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to the training of social work staff in children's services in each year since 2000, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information iscurrently not held centrally.
Specific Grant forSocial Work Training of £5.5 million per annum is allocated to local authorities.This ring fenced funding is to improve the quality of social work serviceprovision by increasing the availability of training for relevant staff. It is not possible to disaggregate the fundingspecifically spent on children’s services.
| Specific Grant | Initial Allocation | Supplementary Funding |
| 2000-01 | £2,430,000 | |
| 2001-02 | £2,200,000 | £3,500,000 |
| 2002-03 | £2,200,000 | £3,500,000 |
| 2003-04 | £5,500,000 | |
| 2004-05 | £5,500,000 | |
| 2005-06 | £5,500,000 | |
An additional £6 million wasawarded for three financial years commencing 2005-06 through the Early Yearsand Childcare Workforce Development fund to support the growth and developmentof a qualified and skilled early years and childcare workforce.
The Scottish Institute for ResidentialChild Care (SIRCC) was established in 1999 to ensure that residential childcare staff throughout Scotland has access to the skills and knowledge they requireto meet the needs of children and young people in their care.
| SIRCC | Allocation |
| 2000-01 | £1,200,000 |
| 2001-02 | £1,434,728 |
| 2002-03 | £1,578,529 |
| 2003-04 | £1,821,581 |
| 2004-05 | £2,316,518 |
| 2005-06 | £2,247,830 |
A further £0.6 million wasawarded over the financial years 2003-04 and 2004-05 to Children at the Centre.This funding was to provide child protection training to social workers inlocal authorities and other relevant staff including drug workers.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive why there is no free pre-school care or nursery provision for children under five from families of asylum seekers or refugees.
Answer
Localauthorities have a legal duty to provide a free, part-time, pre-schooleducation place for three and four-year-old children.
Freepre-school education is provided regardless of a child’s status, citizenship orethnic background, provided the child is residing in Scotland.
The ScottishExecutive’s Childcare Strategy aims to provide affordable, accessible, qualitychildcare for children aged 0-14 in all neighbourhoods regardless of children’sstatus. Funding is passed to local authorities, who are responsible, inconsultation with their Childcare Partnerships, for allocating funding to meetlocal needs and priorities.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 17 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to extend nursery provision for the under-fives to children of asylum seekers and refugees.
Answer
I refer the member to thequestion S2W-25275 answered on 17 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the parliament's website the search facility forwhich can be found at:
www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many GPs reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by NHS board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of GPs.
Answer
This information is not available.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS board managers reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of board managers.
Answer
This information is not currentlycollected centrally.
It is, however, intended to begincollection of data this winter through the Scottish Workforce Information StandardSystem (SWISS) using the Health and Safety Executive sickness absence code underthe collective heading of anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illness.Data from the collection is not expected to be available until early next year.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses reported as unfit for work as a result of stress in each year since 2001, broken down by NHS board area and expressed also as a percentage of the total number of nurses.
Answer
This information is not currentlycollected centrally.
It is, however, intended to begincollection of data this winter through the Scottish Workforce Information StandardSystem (SWISS) using the Health and Safety Executive sickness absence code underthe collective heading of anxiety, stress, depression and other psychiatric illness.Data from the collection is not expected to be available until early next year.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 15 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has had from the NHS raising concerns in respect of accessing funding under the Changing Children’s Services Fund.
Answer
We have not received any formalrepresentations from NHS boards. The potential for retention of resources by localauthorities from the transfer of a proportion of the fund into the local governmentsettlement was raised in informal discussions by some local partners. The distributionof Fund resources at local level is for local negotiation among partners dependingon local needs and priorities.
Our guidance emphasises the needfor local partnership working, including with NHS boards. Proposals from local partnershipsfor uptake of allocations must show that they have been agreed by the local NHSboard.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 15 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of the Changing Children’s Services Fund has gone to the voluntary sector in each year since October 2001.
Answer
The Executive does not allocatespecific proportions of this fund to the voluntary sector. Allocations are providedto local authorities who then submit joint proposals for uptake of these allocationsin partnership with NHS boards, the voluntary sector and others.
It is up to the local partnershipsto decide how best to utilise these resources to meet local needs and priorities.
- Asked by: Adam Ingram, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 May 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 15 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions the National Workforce Group on social work recruitment and retention has met since 2002.
Answer
The National Workforce Groupfor Social Services met 10 times between September 2003 and its last meeting inFebruary 2006. Workforce Development will be one of the work programmes which willimplement the aspirations of Changing Lives, the report of the 21st CenturyReview of Social Work.
