Chamber and committees

A £2.2 million specificgrant was initially earmarked for local authorities for training in 2003-04 butan additional £11 million is being provided over three years until 2005-06.This comprises of £9 million to local authorities for training and £2 million specifically for a post-graduate course inleadership skills for social work managers in both the local authority andvoluntary sectors.

This additional fundingcomplements a number of measures already in place, including a recruitment and awareness campaign, thenew Framework for Social Work Education incorporating a new honours degree, theestablishment of the Scottish Social Services Council, the development of theInstitute for Excellence in Social Work Education, fast-track recruitment andincentive schemes and a return to practice programme. In addition, I have setup, under my chairmanship, the National Workforce Group to develop a workforceaction plan. One of its three working groups is producing a national education,training and development strategy.

The Executive has made £2.77million available through central budgets in 2003-04 to support local andnational action to tackle alcohol problems. This includes support for local alcoholaction teams, funding for national communications campaign, support for a nationalalcohol information resource and core funding for Alcohol Focus Scotland.

Funding for servicesaddressing alcohol problems is provided within resources allocated to NHS boardsand local authorities, but is not specifically identified by the Executive. Thepartnership agreement includes a commitment to increase resources for alcoholservices and we expect to make a formal announcement on the level of newresources in the next few weeks.

The Parliament has acontract with RMJM (Scotland) Ltd, inherited by the SPCB from the Scottish Executive in June 1999, for the provision of mechanical and electrical servicesto the new building. The SPCB has since had no reason to carry out specificchecks on the financial viability of the company. The client has protection interms of company's professional indemnity insurance in the event of litigation.

The Executive has acommitment to encourage more people to act as coaches and physical activitytrainers. This is essential if we are to meet our targets of increasingactivity levels in the population.

An SVQ level 3 in personaltraining is available from any accredited centre. There are also a number ofindependent companies in Scotland who deliver training to become a personal fitnesstrainer, but who validate their qualifications internally. These qualificationsare recognised by employers in the health and fitness industry.

At present, the Executivehas no plans to produce guidelines for qualifications offered by independentcompanies. This is a matter for the industry to consider to ensure that onlyappropriately trained and competent instructors are allowed to offer theirservices to the general public. Fitness Scotland, the recognised governing body in Scotland, maintaina register of qualified instructors and the public should be reassured thatinstructors on the Fitness Scotland Register are appropriately qualified.

The Kemnay Granite used inthe construction of the new building came from Kemnay Quarry, Kemnay,Aberdeenshire.

National objectives and standardsfor social work services in the criminal justice system, which cover thesupervision aspects of probation orders, were established in 1991. The nationalstandards set out detailed guidance on management and practice and seek toprovide courts with the assurance that high quality services will be providedand standards rigorously applied and effectively administered by suitablyqualified staff.

The Accounts Commission hasa statutory responsibility to specify information local authorities must publishabout their performance, in the form of statutory performance indicators.Criminal justice social work services, which are responsible for thesupervision of probation orders, are one of the areas on which the Commissionreport annually. In addition the social work services Inspectorate commenced in2003 a programme of inspection of the work of criminal justice social workservices and have identified probation as one of the key areas for inspection.

I would also refer themember to the answer given to question S2W-5650. 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.

Localauthorities and managers of serviceshave responsibilities to monitor and improve their performance. Overall, the Scottish Executive undertakes monitoring through the social work services inspectorate annualreport and periodic thematic and specific reports by the Inspectorate. TheChildren and Young People Delivery Group is taking forward work to strengthenlocal quality assurance systems and external inspection of children’s services.Revised guidance for local authorities onplanning co-ordinated children’s services will issue later this year. The Scottish Executive has collated and published performance by local authorities and other service providers under the TimeIntervals Monitoring Group. Audit Scotland reports to the Scottish Parliament provideindependent assessment of performance.

At individual case level,children’s hearings will monitor progress at review hearings. The AntisocialBehaviour etc. (Scotland) Bill proposes a new power for reporters andhearings to refer local authorities tothe courts if there are concerns that statutory obligations are not being met. The review of thehearings system which is due to be launched in a few weeks time will need toconsider how the system as a whole ensures effective outcomes for children.

Performance monitoringreports of services for children on supervision are published regularly byAudit Scotland, Social Work Services Inspectorate’s Annual Reports,Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration’s Annual Report and the Scottish Executive on http://www.childrens-hearings.co.uk/youthjustice.asp.

We look to local authoritiesand other agencies to improve and deliver on current performance. We meetregularly with these agencies, for example with the Children’s HearingsRepresentative Group and the Time Intervals Refocus Group to review theirprogress and to identify both priorities for further improvements and where the Executive can provide support, in addition to the extra resources we have putinto the children’s hearings system.

North Lanarkshire Council receives general allocations of capitalspending consent and Quality of Life Funding. However it is for the council todecide how it allocates its funding, taking account of local needs andpriorities.

Motorways pass through orare planned to pass through Glasgow and Cumbernauld but no motorway bisects oris planned to bisect any town in Scotland.