- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 April 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive who has the authority to change the rules of the Hospital Travel Costs Scheme in Scotland.
Answer
The patients’ travelling expenses schemes emanate from The National Health Service (Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges) (Scotland) (No. 2) Regulations 2003 as amended by The National Health Service (Travelling Expenses and Remission of Charges) (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2004. These Regulations are made by Scottish ministers, in exercise of powers conferred on them by the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 10 March 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 22 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many responses were received by the Deer Commission for Scotland to the recent close season consultation prior to the initial cut-off date of 4 February 2005 and how many were received after that date but before the extended deadline.
Answer
Responses received to the initial cut-off date of 4 February totalled 1,155 and a further 39 responses were received in the extended deadline period to 25 February.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 23 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications were made for electronically-powered wheelchairs and, of these, how many initial applications were successful and how many applications were successful on appeal in each NHS board area in each of the last five years.
Answer
This information is not held centrally but the following information has been provided by the Rehabilitation Technology Information Service (ReTIS), which is being developed by NHS boards.
The number of powered wheelchairs issued by each of the five Scottish Wheelchair and Mobility Centres in 2001-02 and 2002-03 is shown in the following table:
| Centre | 2001-02 | 2002-03 |
| Aberdeen | 102 | 95 |
| Dundee | 236 | 173 |
| Edinburgh | 139 | 154 |
| Glasgow | 655 | 816 |
| Inverness | 51 | 77 |
| Total | 1,183 | 1315 |
Further information may be available from individual NHS boards.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 November 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what flexibility individual local authorities will have in determining how their Supporting People grant allocation will be used.
Answer
Local authorities have a great deal of flexibility to use their Supporting People grant as they judge best on any of the 21 prescribed housing support services in the light of local needs and priorities.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to recruitment and retention after December 2004.
Answer
Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non-medical NHS staff.
Pay modernisation boards have been established across NHSScotland and these will work with the pay modernisation team for Agenda for Change and in partnership with staff representative groups to monitor and assess the recruitment and retention of affected staff, for example by tracking vacancy and turnover rates, and through continuing regular liaison between boards and the Executive concerning recruitment and retention pressures. These processeswill seek to identify which aspects of these data are a result of Agenda for Change and which arise from other factors, although this may not always be possible to do.
In Scotland the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), a partnership body which advises Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change, has agreed to a phased implementation of the matching/ job evaluation process involving a timetabled approach for job families/occupational groups. This is not expected to be completed until the second half of the 2005 and data reflecting the impact of the full operation of Agenda for Change would become available thereafter.
Informed evidence on these aspects of Agenda for Change will be reported to SPRIG.
A feature of Agenda for Change is an agreement whereby premia of up to 30% of basic pay may be made to help overcome local recruitment and retention pressures. All requests for the application of recruitment and retention premia in Scotland would require approval from SPRIG.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to the sector of the health service in which they work.
Answer
Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.
In Scotland the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), a partnership body which advises Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change, has agreed to a phased implementation of the matching/ job evaluation process involving a timetabled approach for job families/occupational groups. The timetable takes account of requests from the service and special health boards to reflect their different workforce profiles and the need for SPRIG to monitor outcomes by job family/occupational group.
Assimilation of staff onto Agenda for Change is not expected to be completed until the second half of 2005. Subsequently, SPRIG and the pay modernisation team for Agenda for Change will be overseeing monitoring and evaluation of outcomes across different staff groups and sectors of health care, for example by tracking implementation of the knowledge and skills framework and its impact on career development, the use of job evaluation to redesign jobs and extend skills, and the effectiveness of the pay system to facilitate teamworking and more flexible working patterns.
At UK, level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the shadow executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring will be supported by CAJE, the new computer aided job evaluation system.
CAJE has the facility to monitor outcomes against the job evaluation scheme for all professional groups in all parts of the country. Information on these outcomes will therefore reported to SPRIG on whatever basis is required by this group.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for various health professions in relation to gender.
Answer
Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.
In Scotland there will be a phased implementation of assimilation of staff onto Agenda for Change. This is not expected to be complete until the second half of 2005. It has been agreed that there will be gender and ethnic monitoring of posts put through the Matching/Job Evaluation process using CAJE, the new Computer Aided Job Evaluation system. Each health system in Scotland will have access to CAJE.
At UK level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring will be supported by CAJE.
In Scotland informed evidence from these processes will be gathered by the pay modernisation team for Agenda for Change and reported to the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group, a partnership body set up to advise Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 17 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the comparative outcomes of Agenda for Change for speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists at divisional, board and regional levels, given the equal value settlement.
Answer
Under the Agenda for Change job evaluation scheme, which was specifically designed for the NHS, all professional groups are assessed under the same evaluation criteria. One of the founding principles of this scheme is to ensure equal pay for work of equal value across all staff groups covered by Agenda for Change.
In Scotland the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), a partnership body which advises Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change, has agreed to a phased implementation of the matching/job evaluation process. Job families/occupational groups will be timetabled into this phased approach with speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists to be covered in the same phase, expected in May 2005.
All health systems in Scotland will have CAJE systems and the results of each individual evaluation will be recorded on this system. The central Pay Modernisation Team for Agenda for Change will monitor evaluations and job matching outcomes to ensure that results are carefully checked using the consistency checking scheme built into the system.
Further quality assurance monitoring will be carried out by a partnership monitoring team consisting of staff from the pay modernisation team, members of the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group and Job Evaluation Leads from the service. Any anomalies or inconsistent results, whether between divisions, boards or regions, will be identified through this process and either addressed at local level or reported to SPRIG.
At UK level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring will be supported by CAJE, the new Computer Aided Job Evaluation system.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 15 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate the outcomes of Agenda for Change for speech and language therapists undertaking the same work in different parts of Scotland and what action it will take where outliers in the information gathered are identified.
Answer
Agenda for Change is a new UK level pay and conditions system for non medical NHS staff.
At UK level all aspects of the job evaluation process will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring will be supported by CAJE, the new Computer Aided Job Evaluation system.
In Scotland informed evidence from this system will be gathered by the Pay Modernisation Team for Agenda for Change and reported to the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group (SPRIG), a partnership body set up to advise Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change.
The SPRIG will monitor outcomes all regions of Scotland to ensure that they are consistent and in line with the Agenda for Change agreement.
- Asked by: Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 26 October 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 10 November 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive when, and how, it will monitor and evaluate emerging skill mix and pay bands within speech and language therapy services at divisional, board, regional and national levels to ensure that patients receive the same quality and quantity of safe clinical care regardless of where they live and which care group they fall into.
Answer
In terms of speech and language therapist pay bands this, in conjunction with all aspects of the job evaluation process, will be monitored by the Job Evaluation Working Party, reporting to the Shadow Executive of the new NHS Staff Council. This monitoring will be supported by CAJE, the new Computer Aided Job Evaluation system.
In Scotland informed evidence from this system will be gathered by the Pay Modernisation Team for Agenda for Change and reported to the Scottish Pay Reference and Implementation Group, a partnership body set up to advise Scottish ministers on the implementation of Agenda for Change.
Under the Agenda for Change job evaluation process staff will be evaluated on their current jobs and assigned to pay bands based on the weighting the job achieves. This will not in itself alter the existing skill mix for speech and language therapists. Over time, there could be changes to the skill mix for this profession as a result of service change and development. The profession will be involved in any discussion that takes place in this matter.
