- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many registered foster carers there are and how many additional foster care households are required, broken down by local authority area, and what plans are in place to recruit more foster carers.
Answer
We have received the followinginformation from local authorities on the numbers of foster carers in their areasin 2005, and their assessment of the shortfall.
| Local Authority | Number of Foster Carers | Shortfall of Foster Carers |
| Aberdeen City Council | 86 | 100 |
| Aberdeenshire Council | 99 | 55 |
| Angus Council | 51 | 14 |
| Argyll and Bute Council | 33 | 22 |
| Clackmannanshire Council | 30 | 0 |
| Dumfries and Galloway Council | 78 | 5 |
| Dundee City Council | 78 | 40 |
| East Ayrshire Council | 29 | 14 |
| East Dunbartonshire Council | 18 | 14 |
| East Lothian Council | 58 | 8 |
| East Renfrewshire Council | 7 | 10 |
| Edinburgh, City of | 280 | 50 |
| Eilean Siar | 17 | 6 |
| Fife Council | 153 | 10 |
| Falkirk Council | 53 | 76 |
| Glasgow City Council | 372 | 100 |
| Highland | 112 | 27 |
| Inverclyde | 26 | 6 |
| Midlothian | 40 | 10 |
| Moray Council | 55 | 29 |
| North Ayrshire Council | 53 | 28 |
| North Lanarkshire | 48 | 12 |
| Orkney Islands Council | 8 | 3 |
| Perth and Kinross | 45 | 16 |
| Renfrewshire Council | 40 | 75 |
| Scottish Borders Council | 38 | 9 |
| Shetland Council | 17 | 3 |
| South Ayrshire | 43 | 6 |
| South Lanarkshire | 32 | 16 |
| Stirling Council | 49 | 10 |
| West Dunbartonshire Council | 25 | 12 |
| West Lothian | 67 | 18 |
| Total | 2,140 | 804 |
We have allocated £12 millionextra funding to local authorities over the period 2005-07 to enable them to improverecruitment and retention of foster carers and to increase placement choice.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many illegal drug addicts have been recorded in each year since 1996 and what the average ages of such addicts have been in the same timescale.
Answer
The information requested onthe number of crimes related to illegal drug use is given in table 1 of the StatisticalBulletin
Recorded crime in Scotland 2004-05, published by the Scottish Executivein October 2005 a copy of which is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 37835).
Data on the ages of the perpetratorsof crimes are not held centrally.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Hugh Henry on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many crimes related to illegal drug use or supply have been recorded in each year since 1996.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25361 on 3 May 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the searchfacility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any legal impediments based on sexual orientation preventing individuals from becoming foster carers and, if so, what the reasons are for such impediments.
Answer
The Fostering of Children (Scotland)Regulations 1996 prohibit a person to foster where there is in the household a personof the same sex other than a relative who will not be concerned with the care of the child. These regulations were designed to prevent the fostering of childrenby gay and lesbian couples. We have indicated our intention to remove this restrictionin Secure and Safe Homes for Our Most Vulnerable Children, our response tothe Adoption Policy Review Group’s Report of Phase II.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of public funds allocated to finance foster care placements has been spent on (a) local authority and (b) independent or private sector placements in each of the last five years.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what registration process exists to ensure that all foster carers are properly trained and accredited and how this compares with the registration process for those employed in residential children's homes.
Answer
There is no registrationprocess for foster carers. The approval, training and accreditation of fostercarers is a matter for fostering service providers, which are inspected againstnational care standards by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executivehow many children placed in foster care in each of the last five years have been in (a) local authority and (b) independent or private sector placements.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce a uniform child allowance to all foster carers; whether there is any legal impediment to paying such an allowance to kinship carers, and how the level of any national allowance would be determined.
Answer
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill,which was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on Monday 27 March, contains a powerfor ministers to create a national system of fostering allowances. The details ofsuch a scheme would be contained in regulations, which would be the subject of consultation.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Robert Brown on 3 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many individuals have been employed as youth workers in each year since 1996, broken down by local authority or agency.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Tommy Sheridan, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by George Lyon on 2 May 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how life expectancy changed (a) across Scotland and (b) in the city of Glasgow between 1996 and 2006.
Answer
Figures for life expectancyare normally calculated using a three year average and are only available up toand including the period 2002-04. They are produced by aggregating deaths andpopulation data for the three year period. Three years are needed to providelarge enough numbers to ensure that published figures are sufficiently robust.
The changes in lifeexpectancy from 1995-97 to 2002-04 for Scotland and the City of Glasgow are shown for males andfemales in the following table:
| | Males | Females |
| Local Authority Areas | 1995-97 | 2002-04 | Change (years) | 1995-97 | 2002-04 | Change (years) |
| Scotland1 | 72.2 | 73.8 | +1.6 | 77.9 | 79.1 | +1.2 |
| City of Glasgow2, 3 | 68.2 | 69.3 | +1.1 | 75.4 | 76.4 | +1.0 |
Notes:
1.Scotland level figures published by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD).
2.Council area figures for 1995-97 published by the Office for NationalStatistics (ONS). These are based on revisions made to population estimatesafter the 2001 Census.
3. 2002-04 figures publishedby the General Register Office for Scotland and use ONS methodology.
