Chamber and committees

In the School Estate StrategyBuilding our Future: Scotland’s School Estate, published in 2003, both the Executive and COSLA agreed on the importance of all the facilities in new and refurbishedschools, including sports facilities, being a community resource. In subsequentsupplementary guidance, such as The 21st Century School, the Executive hasindeed drawn specifically to local authorities’ attention sportscotland’srole, as well as relevant publications and guidance.

No specific guidance in respect of patient travel times and distances to accessconsultant-led hospital-based accident and emergency services has been issued. However, when a proposal for a servicechange, including changes to hospital-basedaccident and emergency services, is to besubmitted to me for approval, I expect the impact of the proposed change on thetravel arrangements of patients to be fully assessed and addressed.

The Kerr Report, Buildinga Health Service: Fit for Future, also suggests that approximately 70% of thecases currently seen in consultant-led “Accident and Emergency” units could be treatedin nurse or paramedic led Community Casualty Units. Delivering for Heath thereforesuggests that care for the majority of unscheduled cases should be maintained orexpanded at the local level through the development of these units.

No specific research on misdiagnosishas been carried out.

Fit for the Future, the report of the group led by Professor David Kerr,recommended remodelling NHSScotland to provide people with the right care in theright setting. This meant establishing a tier of locally provided assessment andtreatment services such as minor injury clinics. This would allow the majority ofpeople currently accessing accident and emergency services to be treated closerto home and faster than at present, whilst freeing specialist accident and emergencyresources for those who really need them. This model requires good triage servicesto ensure that GPs, NHS24 and the Scottish Ambulance Service refer people to theright level of care, and to ensure that patients who self refer incorrectly areidentified quickly and taken to the right setting. NHS boards have risk managementand clinical governance arrangements to provide assurance that diagnosis and treatmentare of consistently high quality.

In the 2004 Spending Review the Scottish Executive provided investment of £1.2 billion over three years in housing support services under the Supporting People programme to support vulnerable people. A further £50 million per annum is provided over the same period to prevent and alleviate homelessness. All of these resources go to local authorities, who are free to add to these resources from other budgets such as social work.

Extensive guidance has been given to local authorities to establish local strategies to assess local needs and priorities, and make best use of these resources.

Housing support service providers must contract with local authorities for Supporting People grant. Their contract price should be negotiated to include the costs of training support staff and preparing for their registration with the Scottish Social Services Council.

Whilst the support provided forpeople showing inappropriate behaviour which may develop into offending is limitedat present, we are committed to addressing their needs as part of the National Strategyfor Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. We have identified additional resourcesin 2006-07 and 2007-08 to help improve services, some of which will be spent onprogrammes targeted at changing the behaviour of perpetrators and potential perpetratorsand also on other strands and behaviours that can be linked to abuse. The NationalReference Group set up to help implement the strategy is currently working on thecriteria for demonstration projects which will go beyond education to include developmentsthat give perpetrators as well as survivors better access to more sensitive andresponsive support services.

For those convicted of sexualoffences, there is a range of community based programmes on offer across Scotland. Forexample, the Community Sex Offender Groupwork Programme (CSOGP) is a cognitive-behaviouralgroupwork programme designed to reduce re-offending by adult male sex offenders.It is the first programme accredited by the Scottish Community Justice AccreditationPanel and is currently being delivered in 10 local authority areas. It is anticipatedit will be adopted by other local authorities over the coming months. In the currentfinancial year the Executive has provided funding in excess of £1.6 million to localauthorities for the delivery of these type of programmes.

To date, there have been only two designation orders made under the Fire Precautions Act 1971 to designate particular uses of premises. These orders have been in respect of hotels and boarding houses, factories, offices, shops and railway premises.

However, educational premises are not fully excluded from the terms of the Fire Precautions Act 1971. The local fire and rescue authority/joint fire and rescue board may take enforcement action where they consider that use of the premises involves a risk to persons on the premises in case of fire, so serious that use of the premises should be prohibited or restricted.

Work is currently underway on a series of sector-specific guides to complement the new fire safety legislation for non-domestic premises which is due to come into force in October this year. Each guide will be the subject of consultation and consultation on the first guide (which is in respect of residential care premises) has recently concluded. It is the intention to use this first guide as a template for the other guides in the series which will include a guide in respect of fire safety in educational premises. Stakeholders will be invited in due course to comment on the content of the educational premises guide and the use of diagrams where considered appropriate.

Section 1 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971 lists those premises which may be the subject of a designation order. To date, only two designation orders have been made: the Fire Precautions (Hotels and Boarding Houses) (Scotland) Order 1972 and the Fire Precautions (Factories, Offices, Shops and Railway Premises) Order 1989. Therefore any buildings which fall within the list at section 1(2) of the 1971 Act but which have not been included in either of the designation orders are exempt from designated status.

Parts 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 commenced on 1 August 2005. Part 3 (which introduces a new fire safety regime for non-domestic premises and licensed houses in multiple occupation in Scotland) is due to come into force in October this year.

At present, fire safety requirements are spread across a large number of different pieces of primary and subordinate legislation, ranging from health and safety to licensing legislation. One of the key pieces of legislation which all workplaces (including educational premises) is subject to is the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 (as amended) and it is the responsibility of the employer to comply with this legislation.

The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and related subordinate legislation will, however, streamline the current fragmented situation replacing the majority of existing general fire safety legislation such as the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997.

The Fire Precautions Act 1971 will be repealed in Scotland later this year when Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 is commenced. There are therefore no plans to designate any premises under the 1971 Act in addition to those already designated.