Chamber and committees

The new tourism network willneed to find a way of building on the strengths of the existing conventionbureaux, especially in the main cities, whilst finding synergies withVisitScotland’s Business Tourism Unit. Exactly how that will be done will beconsidered carefully as part of the network integration project now beginningto get off the ground.

The tourist information centres play an important role in the provision of local information and adviceto visitors. It is too early to say if any changes will be made to the way in which the tourist information centre offices will work within the new tourism network, or indeed if new outlets will be opened. This will be considered as part of the network integration project.

The Executive, through itsInterim Route Development Fund, is actively promoting Aberdeen Airport. Itis engaging with airlines on potential new routes from Scotland,including Aberdeen, which could enhance business links and encouragein-bound tourism. In addition, VisitScotland and the local area tourist boardrecognise the importance of improving access to Aberdeen and the benefitsdirect flights can bring, and therefore work in partnership with the airportand airlines. VisitScotland includes details of all direct flights to Scotland andAberdeen on its website www.visitcotland.comand, where appropriate, it may invest in joint promotional work with airlines.

Since the DisabilityDiscrimination Act was introduced in 1996, NHS boards have been activelyinvolved in ensuring that they develop and deliver services in ways which bestmeet the needs of all disabled people, including people who are deaf. As thefinal requirements of the act come in to force in October 2004, furtherdevelopment work is currently in progress. The current development work, whichis being carried out in partnership with the Disability Rights Commission, willconsider the needs of all disabled people and aims to ensure that it deals withthese issues in an integrated way. We are committed to ensuring that respondingto the needs of disabled people becomes part of mainstream activity withinNHSScotland.

As all training anddevelopment for employees is undertaken locally by each board or individual NHSemployer.

Boards’ audiology servicesshould have access to and provide appropriate means of communicating (e.g. BSL,lip speaking etc) for all patients with appointments whose primary form ofcommunication is not written or spoken language. All staff in audiologydepartments should receive accredited deaf awareness training. All new staffshould have received basic training in, for example, BSL to facilitatecommunication.

In addition, boards locally offer,during induction training, learning and development opportunities for all staffin deaf awareness and sign language. For those staff who are unable to attendtraining courses there are guidelines available on how to work with people witha hearing loss.

General practitioners areexpected to identify their own personal learning needs to better provide forthe health needs of their patients and to seek training accordingly. Guidanceand assistance is available to GPs from NHS Education for Scotland (NES) viathe Postgraduate Directors of General Practice Education.

Training for hospitaldoctors in deaf awareness, is currently delivered through ContinuousProfessional Development (CPD) programmes, which are organised and approved bythe medical Royal Colleges. Guidance and assistance is available to hospitaldoctors from NHS Education for Scotland via the Postgraduate Deans and Tutors.

The responsibility fordetermining the educational requirements for all medical and nursingundergraduates rests with the General Medical Council (GMC) for medicalundergraduates and the Nursing and Midwifery Council for nursing undergraduatesand the Health Professional Council (HPC) for Allied Health Professions (AHP)students. These professional bodies determine the content of the courses anddecides the standard of expertise to be maintained. Currently some first yearnursing and midwifery students are receiving deaf awareness training.

Also, there is availableCouncil for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP) trainingand for the future we are at the moment working in partnership with NHSEducation for Scotland and the Scottish Council on Deafness to developing aCACDP Certificate in Deaf Awareness for healthcare professionals.

Grant aided expenditure is used to support rehabilitation services provided by local authorities. Funding for NHS boards to support drug treatment services is allocated from the Health Department budget. Details of allocations to NHS boards for drug treatment services are set out in the table. NHS boards and local authorities can also support drug treatment and rehabilitation services from their core budgets.

NHS Board	Allocation 1998-99	Allocation 1999-2000	Allocation 2000-01	Allocation 2001-02	Allocation 2002/03/04
	£ (000)	£ (000)	£ (000)	£ (000)	£ (000)
Argyll and Clyde	709	901	984	1,111	1,338
Ayrshire and Arran	403	535	609	737	987
Borders	68	96	118	160	162
Dumfries and Galloway	61	96	124	298	258
Fife	328	445	514	698	789
Forth Valley	103	172	226	462	557
Grampian	750	972	1,085	1,283	1,313
Greater Glasgow*	2,871	3,502	3,670	4,387*	4,488
Highland	86	137	181	300	414
Lanarkshire	333	497	607	862	1,449
Lothian	2,263	2,776	2,922	3,214	3,539
Orkney	11	16	20	24	32
Shetland	28	37	42	46	55
Tayside	933	1,151	1,225	1,348	1,483
Western Isles	13	20	25	43	87
Total Scotland	8,960	11,352	12,352	14,973	16,951

Note: *Funding does not include additional resources of £250,000 allocated to Greater Glasgow NHS Board in 2001-02 or £500,000 in 2002-03 to meet the treatment costs of the Glasgow Drug Court pilot.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-6805 on 23 March 2004. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Skills training programmesare operated by Group Training Associations which are funded by Seafish. While Iam aware that Seafish has asked a consultant to look into aspects of the GroupTraining Association functions, I am not aware that the Executive has receivedrepresentations in respect of their viability.

Properties exempt fromcouncil tax and water charges, and categories of individual disregarded for thepurpose of calculating council tax and water charges, are set out in statute.

Properties that are whollyoccupied by qualifying students and those wholly occupied by the severelymentally impaired are exempt from council tax and water charges.

Individuals disregarded forthe purpose of council tax and water charges are listed below:

Personsin detention other than for the non-payment of a fine or on remand.

Personswith severe mental impairment.

Apprenticesearning no more than £163 per week.

Students.

Studentnurses.

Youthtraining trainees aged under 25.

Patientsin homes.

Careworkers who are employed, work for at least 24 hours per week and receive nomore than £36.

Careworkers who provide care or support for an average of 35 hours per week to aperson who is in receipt of a qualifying benefit and who is not their spouse orchild under the age of 18.

Membersof international headquarters and defence organisations designated under theInternational Headquarters and Defence Organisations Act 1964.

Diplomatswith full and partial diplomatic status.

Membersof religious communities who have no personal income.

Schoolleavers aged under 20 for whom child benefit is payable.

Membersof visiting forces who are neither British citizens nor ordinarily resident inthe United Kingdom.

Spouse and dependents ofnon-British students who are prevented from taking paid employment or fromclaiming benefits by virtue of the rules of their entry into the UK.

At a national level, we haveestablished the Scottish Partnership Forum and the Human Resources Forum. Thisis a tripartite arrangement between the Scottish Executive Health Department, NHSScotlandemployers and trade unions/professional organisations. They are formallyconstituted with an equal number of places offered to the Scottish ExecutiveHealth Department/NHSScotland employers and the STUC affiliated trade unionsand professional organisations. The mechanism and process for selection oftrade union/professional organisation representatives on these national fora isdetermined and undertaken by the trade unions/professional organisations.

Each NHS system has developedand agreed locally a partnership agreement which sets out the membership of theArea Partnership Forum. Membership is drawn from recognised trade unions andprofessional organisations and management representatives.  The number of seatsis a matter for local determination. It is for staff side organisations todetermine the chair and this individual is automatically nominated as the employeedirector for the system subject to ministerial approval of their appointment tothe NHS board.

The only real criteriarequired of all members of local and national fora is an agreement that allparties will work together towards improving the service provided by the NHS,to both patients and staff, and that all decisions on its future will be madethrough genuine partnership working.