Chamber and committees

The Executive has a long-termcommitment to cutting premature deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke inScotland, and has a clear strategy to achieve this. We aim to reduce under-75’s mortalityin coronary heart disease by 60% and in stroke by 50% by 2010. We are currentlyon target to achieve this – coronary heart disease mortality in the under-75s hasfallen by 38% and stroke mortality in under 75s by 40% since 1995. The strategyalso includes action to reduce the number of people who develop coronary heart diseaseor have a stroke, and to ensure that there is rapid access to high quality treatmentfor people who do. For instance, strategy funding has enabled all mainlandboards to set up stroke units providing multi-disciplinary care for stroke patients.

We are currently consideringthe implications of Delivering for Health for the implementation of the strategy.

For CHD, this target equates to reducing the standardised mortality rate for people in the most deprived areas by 21.7% between 2003 and 2008. During the first year of the target period, from 2003 to 2004, standardised mortality fell by 8.12%.

For cancer, this target equates to reducing the standardized mortality rate for people in the most deprived areas by 10.06% between 2003 and 2008. During the first year of the target period, from 2003 to 2004, standardized mortality fell by 2.68%.

The following table shows the numbers of households with children assessed as homeless by local authorities during the years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05, and the proportion of such households relative to all households with dependent children. The final column for each year shows the total number of children in the households assessed as homeless.

It is important to note that the information supplied in the tables relates to total number of households who were assessed as homeless during the year rather than the number who were homeless at any one time. For example, at 31 March 2005there were 4,351 children in 2,373 homeless households with children in temporary accommodation in Scotland.

No comparable information is available prior to December 2001.

Households with dependent children assessed as homeless by local authority: 2002-03 to 2004-05

	2002-03			2003-04			2004-05
	Number of households	% of all households with children	Number of children	Number of households	% of all households with children	Number of children	Number of households	% of all households with children	Number of children
Scotland	8,399	1.36	14,807	8,994	1.47	15,689	9,395	1.55	15,919
Aberdeen City	133	0.60	246	112	0.51	196	117	0.54	195
Aberdeenshire	174	0.60	340	194	0.67	364	248	0.87	434
Angus	165	1.28	314	146	1.15	277	135	1.08	250
Argyll and Bute	115	1.10	195	111	1.08	201	142	1.40	267
Clackmannanshire	142	2.26	261	135	2.18	251	197	3.23	356
Dumfries and Galloway	161	0.94	299	184	1.10	300	208	1.26	384
Dundee City	127	0.75	251	169	1.02	337	118	0.72	206
East Ayrshire	159	1.04	283	151	1.00	288	193	1.29	349
East Dunbartonshire	89	0.64	152	125	0.92	197	89	0.67	143
East Lothian	118	1.02	191	133	1.15	202	137	1.18	221
East Renfrewshire	38	0.32	71	56	0.47	98	85	0.72	132
Edinburgh, City of	847	1.81	1,494	849	1.82	1,460	875	1.89	1,421
Eilean Siar	34	1.15	62	33	1.15	61	54	1.92	104
Falkirk	322	1.73	541	274	1.48	492	220	1.19	383
Fife	704	1.59	1,270	762	1.74	1,320	736	1.69	1,275
Glasgow City	1,672	2.39	2,820	2,024	2.90	3,434	1,967	2.83	3,204
Highland	222	0.89	377	270	1.10	471	262	1.09	444
Inverclyde	72	0.66	121	135	1.27	237	118	1.13	189
Midlothian	163	1.57	258	137	1.32	223	173	1.68	283
Moray	146	1.39	272	132	1.28	255	144	1.43	242
North Ayrshire	337	1.94	604	336	1.97	587	304	1.81	566
North Lanarkshire	573	1.35	1,057	640	1.53	1,123	1,072	2.58	1,806
Orkney	15	0.66	26	19	0.84	38	30	1.35	55
Perth and Kinross	249	1.58	456	130	0.83	236	67	0.43	119
Renfrewshire	222	1.02	403	241	1.12	409	232	1.10	394
Scottish Borders, The	117	0.94	209	197	1.60	338	131	1.07	235
Shetland	26	0.97	45	22	0.83	37	33	1.25	57
South Ayrshire	131	0.99	220	151	1.16	243	151	1.18	262
South Lanarkshire	424	1.10	729	410	1.07	711	396	1.05	661
Stirling	150	1.44	304	122	1.18	229	143	1.39	233
West Dunbartonshire	253	2.08	447	242	2.03	448	312	2.65	524
West Lothian	299	1.36	489	352	1.59	626	306	1.38	525

Source: HL1 returnssubmitted by local authorities to Scottish Executive Development Department Analytical Services Division (Housing Statistics). Percentages are calculatedusing the 2002 based household projections for Scotland.

The numbers of householdswith children assessed as homeless under the homelessness legislation by localauthorities are shown in the reply to S2W-21082 answered on 9 December 2005. Itis not possible to ascertain from the data how many children are assessed ashomeless at any one point in time. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

This information is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

The following tables show a breakdown of staffing before and after midnight at each

Out-of-Hours Centre in Greater Glasgow. The information provided was supplied by the Greater Glasgow NHS Board.

Greater Glasgow Out-of-Hours Centres: Staffing Before Midnight

Out-of-Hours Centre	GPs	Mobile GPs	Nurses	Emergency Nurse Practitioners	Receptionists	Patient Transport Drivers	Home Visiting Drivers	Control Staff	Security Officers	Total
Cardonald	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Drumchapel	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Lightburn	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Stobhill	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Victoria	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Western	1	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	1	4
Total	6	51	6	102	6	53	53	33	6	52

Notes:

1. The five mobile GPs are a dedicated home visits team working across the six out-of-hours centres.

2. The ten emergency nurse practitioners work across the six out-of-hours centres to provide a minor illness service.

3. Control staff, patient transport and home visiting drivers work across the six Out-of-hours centres.

Greater Glasgow Out-of-Hours Centres: Staffing After Midnight¹

Out-of-Hours Centre	GPs	Mobile GPs	Nurses	Emergency Nurse Practitioners	Receptionists	Patient Transport Drivers	Home Visiting Drivers	Control Staff	Security Officers	Total
Stobhill	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	3
Victoria	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1	3
Total	2	3 2	-	-	2	33	33	23)	2	17

Notes:

1. After midnight, due to the reduced level of demand, services are provided at Stobhill Hospital and the Victoria Infirmary only.

2. The three mobile GPs are a dedicated home visits team working across the two out-of-hours centres.

3. Control staff, patient transport and home visiting drivers work across the two out-of-hours centres.

The Scottish Executive is currently in the process of scoping out a series of improvements, to be implemented to the statistics topic of the internet site, aimed at improving the usability and accessibility of statistics in Scotland. A usability study of the site has recently been completed and the results of this are being used to inform enhancements. One finding of the study was that, when the Scottish Executive statistics site was compared with a selection of sites of other statistical agencies, most study participants preferred the Executive statistics internet site overall.

Initial improvements to the site will be implemented early in 2006 and longer term consideration will also be given to further improvement of accessibility to statistics.

The Executive does currently publish some database facilities accessible from the statistics topic of its internet site. The Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics site, which focuses on small area statistics, is accessible from the front page of the statistics internet site and other databases, for example, Scottish Environment Statistics Online, are available within the relevant topic areas i.e. environment. Links to these databases are shown below:

Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics, http://www.sns.gov.uk/.

Scottish Environment Statistics Online, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/envonline/menu0.asp

These databases share many similar features to the databases on Statistics Norway and Statistics Sweden internet sites, including selection of variables and access to time series information. The Executive intends to implement improvements to these existing databases and extend their use across more topic areas. However, it has not yet been decided whether the Executive will implement an integrated database for all Scotland statistics like that shown on the Statistics Sweden and Statistics Norway sites. User preference will be considered in all future developments.