Chamber and committees

Joint Future is the headline policy on joint working between the NHS and local authorities. It applies to all their community care services for adults, and each local partnership has implemented it since 2003. It is a progressive policy: its focus has recently shifted to outcomes-led performance. We expect it to continue as part of the Scottish Government''s approach to outcomes generally. We have no plans to extend its application: its principles are already used in areas such as children''s services.

The majority of the additional £85 million will be allocated directly to NHS boards and will be used to ensure increased access to early intervention and treatment, and for prevention activity.

NHS boards'' individual allocations will be notified shortly.

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

At the time of the most recent intermediate inspection, the central locking system was in use in three houseblocks at Cornton Vale; Bruce, Younger and Skye. The refurbishment of Skye House following a fire removed the central locking system from the houseblock with effect from December 2007, prisoners now have keys to their rooms and are able to access toilet facilities at any time.

Prisoners in Bruce and Younger houseblocks are still subject to the electronic locking system. Whenever possible, staff in the prison''s Electronic Control Room allow immediate access to toilet facilities.

However, this will not always be possible as the number of prisoners allowed access to toilet facilities during patrol and night shift periods is strictly controlled for the safety of prisoners.

The National Solutions Group for Physiotherapy has put in place a range of short, medium and long term solutions that will address the challenges facing the physiotherapy workforce. This work includes the development of a pan‘Scotland allied health professionals (AHP) Bank to provide wide ranging and flexible job opportunities; implementation of NHS boards'' local action plans for physiotherapy recruitment and support; funding opportunities for newly qualified AHPs to work in primary care settings and the development of the NES web-based resource Ready4Work which will be online from April and keep graduates work ready.

The National Solutions Group also fully considered the introduction of a one year guarantee of employment for physiotherapists similar that in place for newly qualified nurses and midwives. However, unlike nurses and midwives, the Scottish Government Health Directorates neither controls nor funds physiotherapy student intakes numbers. The National Solutions Group decided that a more appropriate approach was being created through supported succession planning as well as the range of initiatives outlined above.

The recruitment of junior doctors is a matter for NHS boards as employers. On 31 January 2008, 25 doctors were on special extended contracts.

There were 8,493 patients on the in-patient and day case waiting list with an availability status code on 31 December 2007. Patients who held an availability status code on 31 December 2007 will be treated within 18 weeks from 1 January 2008, that is by 5 May 2008, provided they are available. If they are unavailable their case will be reviewed regularly until they can be treated or until a decision is made to return them to the care of their GP.

The new approach to defining and measuring waiting “ referred to as new ways “ came into effect on 1 January 2008. It is intended to publish as much information as possible about patients'''' experiencing periods of unavailability and numbers of patients removed from waiting lists. Information for the three months ending 31 March 2008 will be published at the end of May 2008.

All fourteen territorial NHS boards plus the Golden Jubilee National Hospital NHS Board will use the national data warehouse for New Ways of waiting. This means that all NHS boards responsible for the treatment of patients under New Ways will use the national data warehouse.

Following the decision in 2005 to develop a data warehouse to help support New Ways, the development cost to Information Services Division (ISD) within NHS National Services Scotland was just over £440,000. The majority of these costs were incurred in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

This new IT system is able to handle information relating to new ways of defining and measuring waiting times. In addition, the new system offers other advantages over previous systems including consistent validation processes for all data, and enabling NHS boards to carry our timely local analyses of consolidated data for all relevant sites at any time.

Costs to NHS boards of amending their hospital patient administration systems to store, process and report new ways data are not recorded centrally. Boards worked together with ISD to prepare a single change specification and system changes were commissioned jointly to minimise costs.

on 17 January 2008, whether it will initiate discussions with COSLA, as part of its concordat, to ensure that education authorities all take part in the Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey in 2008.

(S3W-09360)

Shona Robison We will continue to engage with COSLA in planning for the 2008 survey “ as we have done in previous surveys.

A contract for support for the eHealth Programme was let to Deloitte following a competitively tendered OJEU procurement in May 2007.

The contract was for an initial nine months with an option to extend to 36 months. NHS Scotland has now advertised through OJEU for a replacement framework contract which is intended to make support available from a wider range of companies who can help the NHS gain benefits from the eHealth Programme.

The role of the existing contract is to provide interim management support for new approaches to IT governance. The Audit Scotland report Managing IT to deliver information in the NHS in Scotland of November 2006 highlighted the need to improve governance arrangements for eHealth and to improve its approach to delivering benefits from IT investment.

Deloitte''s remit includes the:

Provision of suitably qualified personnel to fill key posts on an interim basis, particularly Acting Heads of Programmes, Change/ Benefits and Communications and Design Authority;

setting up and supporting improved programme governance structures;

setting up a programme management office and defining appropriate programme management processes;

setting up mechanisms to monitor eHealth spend across NHS Scotland, as called for by the Audit Scotland;

establishing and supporting a design authority and developing appropriate technical standards;

establishing a change, benefits and communications function and defining an appropriate benefits management strategy and approach, and

developing a communications strategy and plan.

Some of these roles are time limited other will be filled over the next few months by staff from the Scottish Government or from NHS Scotland. The number of contractors has varied between seven and 20 over the contract duration as resource demands have changed. Most of these are filling interim roles in the central management of the programme with smaller numbers supporting boards direct on different projects.

The value of the Deloitte contract to date is circa £3 million including VAT. The total contract cost will depend on when the new framework becomes available and the replacement of interim roles with public sector staff.