Chamber and committees

The delivery plans prepared aspart of the review of Sport 21 will be submitted by the Steering Group to Scottishministers for consideration.

The answer to question S2W-23786was issued on 4 May. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executivealready has effective arrangements in place for involving a wide range ofbodies and individuals in our policy and decision-making processes. There is noneed for us to make any new arrangements simply because we no longer fund the Scottish Civic Forum. However, I recognise that there is scope for us toimprove the ways in which we engage with the public and so we are currentlylooking at how we can do this. I am particularly keen to reach out to peoplewho do not traditionally participate, such as young people, people fromdeprived communities and people from ethnic minority communities.

The Scottish Executive is notreviewing the existence of Local Economic Forums (LEFs). However, officials haveheld, and will continue to hold, discussions with those involved in LEFs to identifyhow the Executive and forum members can ensure that LEFs make an effective contributionto economic development.

These discussions will take intoaccount proposals for Scottish Enterprise’s future structure as referred to in mystatement to Parliament on 30 March 2006.

Each secondary school shouldhave access to a qualified school nurse. However, the Executive’s policy on theschool nursing service reinforces the development of integrated teams which matchthe appropriate professional skill with the identified health need.

An integrated workforce planningcycle has been introduced across NHSScotland for all staff groups includingnursing. This process adopts an evidence base approach to workforce planning ratherthan setting specific targets for individual staff groups.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

The Prison Outreach Project hasbeen operational since April 2000 and currently provides services at HM Prison Edinburgh,HM Prison and YOI (Young Offenders’ Institute) Cornton Vale and YOI Polmont.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-21485 on 14 December 2005. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The planning of the workforceto deliver first class health services, including specialist nurses who work withsufferers of chronic conditions to patients in Scotland, is primarily a matterfor individual NHS boards. As at 30 September 2004, there were 219 nurse specialists workingwith patients who have chronic conditions such as Diabetes, Epilepsy, HIV, Parkinson’sDisease, Multiple Sclerosis and Palliative Care. Further information is publishedon the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

A Review of Nursing in the Communityis also underway, which, when completed will set the direction for creating a modernre-designed community nursing service. This will significantly contribute to thereduction of hospital admissions, facilitate hospital discharges, improve the managementof patients with long-term illness and support the care and treatment of patientsin their own home and community settings.

There is no specific grant aidedexpenditure provision included within the core local government financesettlement in respect of local authorities’ expenditure incurred consultinglocal people on local or national issues. The core local government financesettlement to local authorities is provided as a largely unhypothecated grantand local authorities have the responsibility to allocate their total resourceson the basis of their own local needs and priorities including the effectiveconsultation with their electorate.

The Scottish Executive is involvedin an on-going dialogue with the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland and the CatholicChurch on how to tackle sectarianism. These discussions have allowed the views ofboth to be taken into account in the development of the Action Plan on TacklingSectarianism in Scotland and the initiatives which will deliver on these actions.In particular, the Orange Lodge has contributed to documents which are being preparedby the Working Group on Marches and Parades and members of the Catholic Church are representedon the Task Group on Tackling Sectarianism,the Executive’s Core Liaison Group and at the annual meetings between the FirstMinister and Action of Churches Together in Scotland.