Chamber and committees

Source: ISD SMR01.

Notes:

1. The proportion given is the number of hospital admissions which began with an emergency episode as a percentage of the total number of admissions.

2. The same patient may be counted more than once within each year if they have more than one stay within a main diagnosis of any of the specified cancer within that year.

Prior to 2007 a total of six Healthy living Centres closed across Scotland for various reasons.

At January 2008 there were 37 Healthy Living Centres, as a further three had re-modeled in 2007-08 due to local priorities.

From January 2008 to date, a further nine Healthy Living Centres have closed due to local funding decisions, and four Healthy Living Centres have been re-modeled or mainstreamed.

In the period 2008-10 the Scottish Government provided in excess of £3 million in transitional funding to assist Healthy Living Centres move to a sustainable financial position, following the cessation of the five year Big Lottery Fund programme.

The Early Years Framework was published in December 2008, in recognition of the key importance of the early years of life in determining life chances and outcomes, including health outcomes. Along with Equally Well and Achieving our Potential it forms part of a coherent approach to addressing disadvantage and breaking the intergenerational cycles of inequalities.

The Early Years Framework highlights the importance of all national and local agencies, the third sector and independent sector working together to deliver improved outcomes for our children.

In June 2010, we published the review of Equally Well, the report of the Scottish Task Force on Health Inequalities. This review reported on the implementation of Equally Well, the Early Years Framework and Achieving our Potential - the Government''s framework for tackling poverty. In relation to child health development the review recommended that an early years pathfinder approach should be established to promote the integration of front-line services, taking a whole-systems approach to implement rapid change in a community planning partnership area. The review also stressed the importance of NHS boards ensuring the provision of healthcare and health improvement services to looked after children and agreed to endorse the Looked After Children and Young People Strategic Implementation Group programme of work to build greater cooperation between partners and a shared sense of responsibility for the outcomes of looked after children. In addition, the review agreed on the importance of developing the focus on health and wellbeing in the Curriculum for Excellence, and also noted the importance of literacy and numeracy skills in increasing young people''s long-term prospects.

Within the measurement framework for the Healthcare Quality Strategy, a set of high-level outcome indicators is being developed to provide evidence of progress towards the three over-arching Quality Ambitions. Work is underway to include in this set an indicator relating to Early Years.

In January this year we launched A New Look at Hall 4 - The Early Years “ Good Health for Every Child which recommends that: all children should have a Named Person; all children should have a Health Plan Indicator “ Core or Additional “ by the age of six months; a 24-30 month review should be carried out for all children; and health improvement materials should be promoted to provide parents/carers with appropriate and tailored information.

We also launched a refreshed Framework for Maternity Care together with outcome focused evidence into action guidance for NHS boards in January this year. These are in line with the recommendation in the Marmot review that universal services should be appropriate and proportionate so as to address the social gradient nature of antenatal health inequalities and the emphasis on the importance of improving access to healthcare amongst those groups who most need it but often benefit least from it.

At the same time, the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework was also launched which has an emphasis on maternal nutrition for the first time and the importance of good nutrition in providing the best start in life.

The review will consider how the Breast Screening Service in Scotland is delivered in the future, including the delivery of digital mammography.

The Scottish Government will work closely with NHS boards over the coming year to ensure that they are adequately prepared to implement the recommendations of the review.

Some steps we have taken so that these needs can be highlighted are:

1. The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 strengthened the 2004 Act which placed a duty on education authorities to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of all pupils for whom they are responsible, and to tailor provision to their individual needs.

2. New guidance for social workers was published on 24 December 2010 which specifically advises report writers to consider the impact on children and other family members of certain community disposals and especially custody.

3. The Minister for Children and Early Years hosted a meeting with representatives from Families Outside, Action for Children, Barnardos, SCCYP (Scotland''s Commissioner for Children and Young People) and Children in Scotland to discuss suggested ways forward on 25 January 2011 and officials are currently developing mechanisms to help identify children with specific support needs.

The following table shows a breakdown of funding to the organisation for the period 2008 to 2012:

A funding proposal for full three year funding beyond March 2012 is expected to be submitted by the SBCC for consideration in the summer/autumn of 2011.