Chamber and committees

Not all local authorities use the national entitlement card (NEC) to access local leisure and/or library services. As the NEC is an additional means of access to local services the alternatives available will be the decision/choice of each local authority.

The information requested is set out in the following tables.

Sewel Motions by Parliamentary Year - Session 1

	Sewel Motions
12 May 1999 “ 11 May 2000	10
12 May 2000 “ 11 May 2001	15
12 May 2001 “ 11 May 2002	7
12 May 2002 “ 31 March 2003	9
Total Session 1	41

*These figures differ from those in Scottish Parliament Fact Sheet FS4-06 (9 January 2008) and have been adjusted to enable a direct comparison with subsequent years. The adjusted figures represent a separate motion for each relevant bill. Initial practice in the Parliament was to allow one motion to cover more than one bill. The fact sheet figures are seven and 16 respectively.

Sewel Motions / Legislative Consent Motions by Parliamentary Year - Session 2

	Sewel Motions/LCMs*
7 May 2003 - 6 May 2004	13
7 May 2004 “ 6 May 2005	9
7 May 2005 “ 6 May 2006	8 (+2 memoranda**)
7 May 2006 - 2 April 2007	8 (+1 memorandum**)
Total Session 2	38 (41 memoranda)

Notes:

*Chapter 9B of Standing Orders, setting out the new LCM procedure and replacing Sewel Motions, was inserted on 30 November 2005.

**There were three instances in which Legislative Consent Memoranda were required to be lodged in accordance with Standing Orders, but no Legislative Consent Motion resulted.

Legislative Consent Motions by Parliamentary Year - Session 3

	LCMs
9 May 2007 “ 8 May 2008	8
9 May 2008 “ Present	2
Total Session 3 to date	10

 

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19077 on 15 January 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Our estimates on the number of additional community sentences which might result from the proposals contained in Protecting Scotland''s Communities: Fair, Fast and Flexible Justice, will be published in the Financial Memorandum accompanying the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill due to be introduced in Parliament soon.

Sentencing decisions are, and will remain, the responsibility of our judges, who are best placed to decide, given the circumstances of each case, what the most appropriate sentence may be. There is nothing in our plans that will change that.

Robust transition arrangements should be in place for all children and young people moving to adult services, including those with autism. Specifically, the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 requires education authorities to take action, where appropriate, to help young people with additional support needs, including autism, to make the transition from school to post-school life successfully.

However, while there is evidence of much good practice, there is always room for improvement. That is why we have taken action on a number of fronts to strengthen transition pathways and improve life outcomes for all young people with autism.

For example, we will publish shortly The Autism Toolbox for practitioners which will include planning for personal transitions and more effective multi-agency working for future service provision.

We will fund an Additional Support for Learning Transitions Development Officer, who will be in place by April 2009. The officer will manage and co-ordinate local and national partnership approaches with a specific focus on successful transition for all young people at risk of missing out on education and training opportunities.

In 2008, the Scottish Government published guidance for commissioners of health and social care services for people with autism. It addresses the need for appropriate services for young people during the transition to adulthood and provides examples of existing good practice.

Our focus on personalisation through the Changing Lives work, encourages service providers to work with people in determining the supports they need at transition to help achieve the best social outcomes and inform future adult service provision.

The Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability, funded by the Scottish Government is currently advertising a new post to build and sustain capacity across agencies to increase the number of people with learning disabilities and autism in employment.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0129-01.htm

 

Her Majesty''s Inspectorate of Education reported on the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of education authorities in implementing the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 in November 2007.

The report identified the need to improve the consistency with which the legislation surrounding co-ordinated support plans is interpreted. This includes co-ordinated support plans for children and young people with autism.

I have asked officials to convene a short term working group to advise on co-ordinated support plan related matters and help facilitate the development of any further guidance or training. The group has held its first meeting. The key aim is to provide advice on how to improve the effectiveness of co-ordinated support plans for all children and young people who require them including those with autism. The initial outcomes of the group are expected to be available around spring 2009.

The government will also soon publish The Autism Toolbox, an autism resource for Scottish local authorities and schools. This draws on a range of advice, experience and research to support education authorities and school staff to manage the day to day practice of supporting and teaching pupils with autism. The resource highlights the importance of multi-agency working including the preparation of co-ordinated support plans and considers the role of different professionals in supporting children with autism and their families.

A total baseload allocation of £15,425,618 has been made to the Community Justice Authorities for supporting community sentences in 2009-10. This represents an increase of £2 million to support increased workload and to ensure the immediacy and speed of completion of sentences.

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

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) does not currently routinely screen prisoners for autistic spectrum disorder.

The SPS is assisting the University of Edinburgh and the charity Research Autism in their project to test the validity of a new screening instrument for autistic spectrum disorder in a number of establishments.

Further, the SPS has reviewed its service provision for learning disability and difficulties and is seeking to implement an improved alerting process to identify such people in custody. We intend to achieve this through improvements in use of available information and broadening the routes into assessment and care pathways.

People with autism spectrum disorder are most likely to be diagnosed in an out-patient clinic and managed in the community or general practice. Diagnostic information for patients attending outpatient clinics is not available centrally.

However, data on pupils with autism in state funded schools, identified in the 2007 census, is available in tables 1.7 and 1.9 in the statistical bulletin on the government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/07/28100032/0.

Data on pupils with autism in the independent sector in 2007 is available in tables 1.4 and 1.6 in the Independent School Census, September 2007, on the government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/04/29101007/0.