Chamber and committees

There are robust contingency measures in place to ensure the resilience of the control rooms system. The strength of these was clear in December 2015 when technical issues arose at Bilston Glen and Dundee, and Police Scotland were able to maintain effective handling of emergency calls.

I commissioned a review of call handling by HMICS which reported in early December 2015 and which made 30 recommendations. I have been assured by the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland that these will be implemented in full.

In September 2015 I announced £1.4 million of new money would immediately be made available to Police Scotland in order to provide additional resilience to control room operations.

Student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals who may be exposed to the flu during placements within NHS boards should receive the flu vaccination in line with all other NHS healthcare workers.

A joint letter is issued each year from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer to the NHS setting out the arrangements for flu season. This highlights the importance of the flu vaccination being offered by employers for staff or other individuals who may be at risk of occupational exposure.

An antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) cannot result in an exclusion order. Exclusion orders are provided for by Section 94 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which applies where a person is convicted of a violent offence committed on, or in the immediate vicinity of, any licensed premises. The exclusion order will then prohibit the person from entering the premises on which the offence was committed, or such other licensed premises (if any) as specified by the court in the order.

ASBOs are preventative orders, provided for by the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, which are intended to protect people in the community affected by antisocial behaviour from further acts or conduct that would cause them alarm or distress. An ASBO is a court order which prohibits, either indefinitely or for a specified period, a person from doing anything described in the order.

However, conditions set by an ASBO may include a ban from licensed premises, or the immediate vicinity of such premises, if the sheriff making the ASBO deems such a measure to be necessary. Information in relation to the use of ASBOs for this purpose is not held centrally by the Scottish Government, however my officials have written to all Scottish local authorities to obtain this information and they will co-ordinate a response and place it in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre once this information has been received (Bib. number 57458).

The Scottish Government is currently in active negotiation with the UK Government about the level of funding that will be transferred to the Scottish Parliament as a result of the Scotland Bill 2015. Attendance allowance is one of the benefits that will be devolved.

Free personal care is available for everyone aged 65 and over in Scotland who have been assessed by the local authority as needing it. This policy currently benefits over 78,000 people, many of whom will also receive attendance allowance.

Advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) work in a variety of nursing roles and across a number of delivery settings such as community and primary care. Whilst published data on ANPs is not available, we expect NHS board workforce planners to know how many ANPs they have, how many they require, and how to take full account of ANPs in preparing workforce plans, as they are statutorily required to do.

Information Services Division Scotland, with guidance from the Scottish Government, plans to work with NHS boards to further develop the recording of ANPs.

The Scottish Government is working through its transforming nursing roles initiative to provide strategic oversight, direction and governance to the development and transformation of nursing roles so that they meet the current and future needs of Scotland’s health and care system. This aims to ensure developments in nursing roles arising from either policy or service imperatives are nationally sustainable and consistent, and have clear career pathways.

In the majority of instances a 2C practice is run by the NHS board, as opposed to being run by GPs and/or other partners, as is the case for practices with 17C or 17J contract types.

Health boards are responsible for the provision of primary medical services for their areas and we expect Boards to share best practice. For this purpose the National Primary Care Leads Group, chaired by the Scottish Government, was established in 2004 as a forum with clinical and operational management representation from territorial health boards, the Scottish Government and key partner agencies such as Practitioner Services Division.

I refer the member to the answer in S4W-28380 answered on 19 November 2015. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government fully supports and appreciates district nurses and general practice nurses in their vital work in caring for the health and wellbeing of Scotland’s people in their communities, including those with complex and long-term conditions.

That is why the Chief Nursing Officer is currently leading a review of district nursing, including Advance Practice District Nursing, which will also consider their current and future skills and educational needs and its provision. General practice nurses will contribute to this review.

The high level recommendations of this review will be published in spring 2016 and NHS boards will then begin implementation of the agreed recommendations.

A Stronger Scotland: The Government’s Programme for Scotland 2015-16 referred to 10 primary and community care test sites which will be used to inform primary care service reform. Those sites specifically mentioned within the Programme for Government are examples of:

Work in progress towards integrated services (such as Edinburgh Headroom and Govan integrated care and the work involving the merging of two GP practices in Tayside);

Enhanced intermediate care in an urban setting (community hub sites in Forth Valley and Fife);

Being Here test sites in Campbeltown, West Lochaber, Isle of Islay and Mid Argyll and;

Existing examples of good practice, which include various types of community healthcare centres like the one in Clackmannanshire.

These sites were identified by a range of mechanisms including asking health boards to bring forward proposals to develop tests of change. Depending on the project, proposals were evaluated against a number of criteria. For example, with community hubs it is important that the hubs are based in semi-urban areas adjacent or near to an acute hospital so an effect on patient flow at the nearest acute hospital can be demonstrated. It is also important that they have existing suitable infrastructure.

Where the work is already in progress funding from the Scottish Government health directorates has been used to support its development. Scottish Government officials will continue to work closely with these sites to offer support and guidance as well as ensure that learning is shared to inform the redesign of primary care across Scotland.

The £20.5 million primary care transformation fund will learn from existing examples of good practice and support further work going forward. Scottish Government officials are currently developing a framework for the fund and will invite health boards/integrated joint boards to develop proposals to test new ways of working in primary care. Support for the tests will include a focus on evaluation and sharing the learning across Scotland.

Information on the application process and selection criteria will be made publicly available in due course.