Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive invested £12 million for out of school hours learning this year.

Funding for study support and out of school hours learning is currently made available to authorities through the National Priorities Action Fund (NPAF) and will continue to be made available as a component of the gross allocation of the NPAF for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

The Scottish Executive was happy to accept the findings of the SCRE Evaluation of study support and out of school hours learning in Scotland. This showed that almost all secondary schools and over three-quarters of primary schools currently provide a range of study support/out of school hours learning activities.

The SCRE evaluation recommended that the Executive support the development of SS/OSHL by offering more strategic direction, raising awareness of the impact OSHL can have on young people and school communities, promoting partnership working and continuing to support the dissemination of good practice.

In response to this, officials have been working with the Scottish Study Support Network to develop new guidance for OSHL in Scotland. The document will outline the contribution OSHL can make towards the broader education agenda as well as offering good practice and self evaluation guidance. An event is planned to launch the guidance document in spring 2006.

Scottish Water and, where relevant, its contractors, are responsible for sewage treatment and disposal in Scotland, within the regulatory framework applicable to these activities. Scottish Water is therefore responsible for the development of a strategy. I understand that it is currently working on such a revised sludge strategy.

The Scottish Executive consulted on possible changes to the requirements for the tasking of the use of sludge on agricultural land in 2002 linked to the possibility of placing the Safe Sludge Matrix on a statutory basis. There are no plans for any further reviews at the present time.

I refer the member to my answer to question S2W-20507 on 17 November 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search.

Scottish Water is working with a range of stakeholders, including the Executive, to develop a sludge strategy. The objective of this strategy is to identify long-term sustainable solutions to the treatment and disposal of sewage.

While testing for brominated flame retardants is not specifically required by the Sludge (Use in Agriculture) Regulations 1989, as amended, it is the duty of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency under the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994, again as amended, to ensure that waste management is carried out without danger to human health or harm to the environment. It is for that body to assess, on a case-by-case basis, what the risks of any individual proposal are and what safety limits and testing requirements should therefore be set, in addition to those in the 1989 Regulations.

There has been a range of recent National Institute for Clinical Exellence (NICE) guidance relative to cognitive behavioural therapy and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will continue to comment on and commend relevant aspects for NHSScotland as appropriate. Scottish Executive guidance has issued to help agencies in Scotland further develop and improve local access to a range of psychological interventions, including CBT.

Access to services has been improved through the Doing Well by People with Depression Project; which already includes new cognitive behavioural therapy supported self-help and therapies at 10 sites across Scotland. Work is also underway with NHS Education Scotland to increase access to clinical psychology training places and to support the new psychology graduate training course which focuses on CBT and other therapies for adults in primary care settings.

The position is unaltered from the answer to question S2W-17214 on 20 June 2005. This data is not currently available, however the Improving Mental Health Information Programme is working with the NHS boards to standardise the information. Data sets are now being tested with outcomes expected by 2007.

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/webapp/wa.search.

In November, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Council is to consider whether to include an examination of non-pharmacological management of mild to moderate depression in adults in Primary Care as part of their work programme for 2006.