Chamber and committees

Projects will be evaluated against the aims and objectives set out in their proposals. In addition, mainstreaming is a key issue in phase 2 together with equality of access by women, minority ethnic communities and people with dual diagnosis e.g. mental illness and drug misuse.

Personal life plans were proposed as a new form of assessment in The same as you? review of services for people with learning disabilities. The review recommended that everyone with a learning disability who wants to, should be able to have a personal life plan, and that the local area co-ordinator will be responsible for making sure this happens. The Scottish Executive issued advice on the appointment of local area co-ordinators to all local authorities and NHS boards in October this year. This set out a framework of key outcomes for local area co-ordination, one of which is the availability of personal life plans.

Greater numbers of people are being recognised as having autistic spectrum disorders. Comprehensive information on the number of people identified with this condition is not available. The information which is available nationally from general practices is based on a small sample only of practices, and estimates of the prevalence of relatively uncommon conditions such as autistic spectrum disorder cannot be reliably derived. As such, this information cannot be used to provide accurate projections for the immediate future.

Aspects of transition should be addressed within current arrangements for Future Needs Assessment for Children with Records of Need so that provision for social and health care or therapies is agreed with adult services when necessary. The Scottish Executive is collecting data on all young people with disabilities to identify need and to consider potential approaches. Specific work is being done on a number of fronts to ensure smooth transition. The Scottish Executive provided funding of £180,000 through its Innovation Fund for Children's Services for projects in Ayrshire and Arran, Forth Valley and Lanarkshire designed to smooth the transition from child to adult health services for people with disabilities. The Forth Valley project produced guidelines for health professionals on smoothing the transition between child and adult services for people with a learning disability, which are available on SHOW (Scottish Health on the Web). The answer given to question S1W-32408 today, also gives an outline of initiatives in respect of people with learning disabilities. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

I have asked Mr Bob Millar, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:Financial assistance is available towards the costs of adaptations to the home of a permanent nature (e.g. special bathing arrangements) and for the provision of specialist aids and equipment (e.g. removable stair lifts). In the case of privately rented or owner occupied housing the landlord or owner occupier is expected to meet the costs of adaptations to the home but may be eligible for grant aid from the local authority.Support and advice on all cases is provided by the Social Work Departments of local authorities.

The Terms of Service for GPs are set out in the NHS (General Medical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 1995. They do not require GPs to register secondary jobs.

The water charges exemption scheme was set up to assist charities and voluntary organisations affected by withdrawal of relief on water and sewerage charges. The scheme's eligibility criteria are intended to target assistance on those bodies with relatively low incomes. I have no plans to alter the criteria.Those bodies affected by withdrawal that do not satisfy the criteria but which can demonstrate hardship arising as a result of withdrawal can apply for support from the hardship fund run by the Scottish Community Foundation.

It is not known how many of the original 68 nominations for membership of the forum have children. The current membership of the forum includes many parents, some of whom have children with special educational needs. The main purpose of the forum is to offer strategic advice to Scottish ministers on the development and implementation of policies to improve standards of provision for special educational needs across Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-32405 today. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.

Work is going on across the Scottish Executive to gather information on children and young people with disabilities in order to establish areas of need, and consider how these can be addressed. This will include young people with disabilities who have been looked after.