Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-06381

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 27 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified social workers with specific responsibility for child protection there have been on each local authority’s establishment in each of the last three years.

Information is notcollected by the Scottish Government on social workers with specific responsibilityfor child protection. Total establishment of social workers in Children’s Servicesin each local authority in each of the last three years is provided in the followingtable.

Social Worker Total Establishment in Children’s Services(Whole-Time Equivalent) - by Local Authority: October 2004 to October 2006

	Total Establishment - WTE^1,2,3,4
Local Authority	October 2004	October 2005	October 2006
Aberdeen City	120	113	123
Aberdeenshire	130	127	126
Angus	50	44	48
Argyll and Bute	12	14	18
Clackmannanshire	27	24	24
Dumfries and Galloway	55	80	82
Dundee City⁵	114	83	83
East Ayrshire	43	38	56
East Dunbartonshire	20	19	22
East Lothian	30	41	30
East Renfrewshire	36	35	34
Edinburgh City⁶	231	228	228
Eilean Siar⁷	5	6	7
Falkirk	61	79	86
Fife	113	123	143
Glasgow City	350	396	405
Highland	111	125	122
Inverclyde	46	53	49
Midlothian	32	38	42
Moray	40	49	50
North Ayrshire	44	44	51
North Lanarkshire	108	121	136
Orkney Islands	10	9	8
Perth and Kinross	57	52	52
Renfrewshire	64	64	72
Scottish Borders	56	46	50
Shetland Islands	9	8	9
South Ayrshire	47	46	51
South Lanarkshire	111	122	119
Stirling	51	54	45
West Dunbartonshire	77	56	61
West Lothian	74	81	73
Scotland	2,332	2,415	2,501

Source: Socialwork staff and vacancies: annual statistics.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubSocialWorkStaff.

Notes:

The bi-annual SocialWork Posts and Vacancies: October 2007 publication contains national level dataon social worker numbers at service level. For statistical reasons, these cannotbe broken down by local authority and the latest available annual statistics havetherefore been used as noted above.

1. Total establishment= WTE filled posts + WTE vacant posts.

2. In the October2006 census, there was a change in methodology to eliminate the double countingof staff covering for absent staff. Therefore, 2006 figures are not comparable withprevious years.

3. Staff numbers mayfluctuate over time as a result of various factors, including changes in the wayservices are provided and changes in the numbers of vacancies.

4. For some localauthorities, certain services are provided by other departments (e.g. some servicesfor children may be provided by education departments). This will result in somedifferences in the level of staffing between local authorities.

5. In 2006, data forDundee City was not provided. The data supplied for 2005 has been used.

6. In 2006, childrenand families data for City of Edinburgh was not provided. The 2005 data for childrenand families has been used.

7. Vacancy data forEilean Siar was not provided for 2006, so 2005 figures have been used.

Question reference: S3W-06380

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 27 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified social workers there have been in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S3W-06379

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 27 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified social workers there have been on each local authority’s establishment in each of the last three years.

Question reference: S3W-06382

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Adam Ingram on 27 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified social workers with specific responsibility for child protection there have been in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

Information is notcollected by the Scottish Government on social workers with specific responsibilityfor child protection. The number of filled social worker posts in Children’s Servicesin each local authority in each of the last three years is provided in the followingtable.

Social Worker Filled Posts in Children’s Services(Whole-Time Equivalent) - by Local Authority: October 2004 to October 2006

Local Authority	Filled Posts - WTE^1,2,3
Local Authority	October 2004	October 2005	October 2006
Aberdeen City	108	104	108
Aberdeenshire	114	115	111
Angus	42	41	45
Argyll and Bute	11	12	18
Clackmannanshire	20	13	12
Dumfries and Galloway	45	62	71
Dundee City⁴	103	77	77
East Ayrshire	38	36	47
East Dunbartonshire	11	11	17
East Lothian	30	38	29
East Renfrewshire	36	33	31
Edinburgh City⁵	210	220	220
Eilean Siar	3	6	7
Falkirk	47	65	72
Fife	97	100	123
Glasgow City	340	357	389
Highland	96	106	106
Inverclyde	43	49	43
Midlothian	23	33	36
Moray	36	43	49
North Ayrshire	37	40	46
North Lanarkshire	90	107	118
Orkney Islands	8	8	8
Perth and Kinross	47	46	50
Renfrewshire	56	54	68
Scottish Borders	49	39	49
Shetland Islands	7	7	8
South Ayrshire	42	43	48
South Lanarkshire	94	119	115
Stirling	44	48	45
West Dunbartonshire	56	46	56
West Lothian	71	73	68
Scotland	2,053	2,147	2,290

Source: Socialwork staff and vacancies: annual statistics.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Children/PubSocialWorkStaff.

Notes:

The bi-annual SocialWork Posts and Vacancies: October 2007 publication contains national level dataon social worker numbers at service level. For statistical reasons, these cannotbe broken down by local authority and the annual statistics have therefore beenused as noted above.

1. In the October2006 census, there was a change in methodology to eliminate the double countingof staff covering for absent staff. Therefore, 2006 figures are not comparable withprevious years.

2. Staff numbers mayfluctuate over time as a result of various factors, including changes in the wayservices are provided and changes in the numbers of vacancies.

3. For some localauthorities, certain services are provided by other departments (e.g. some servicesfor children may be provided by education departments). This will result in somedifferences in the level of staffing between local authorities.

4. In 2006, data forDundee City was not provided. The data supplied for 2005 has been used.

5. In 2006, childrenand families data for City of Edinburgh was not provided. The 2005 data for childrenand families has been used.

Question reference: S3W-06327

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis (a) has been carried out or (b) is planned on the effectiveness of insulin pumps as a treatment tool for insulin-dependent diabetes.

Question reference: S3W-06328

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost is of providing insulin pumps as a treatment tool for insulin-dependent diabetes and what percentage this represented of the Executive’s health budget in each year since 2004.

Question reference: S3W-06329

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions have been held with Moray Council about the development of the Elgin bypass.

Question reference: S3W-06330

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what timescale is planned for the construction of the Elgin bypass.

Question reference: S3W-06326

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to review the criteria for qualification for entitlement to insulin pumps.

The NationalInstitute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently consulting onthe terms of a multiple technology appraisal of continuous subcutaneous insulininfusion. This represents a review of its February 2003 Technology AppraisalGuidance No. 57 Guidance on the use of continuous subcutaneous insulininfusion for the treatment of diabetes, setting out the criteria with whichNHS Boards are currently expected to comply.

As is standardpractice in these cases, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) will considerthe NICE appraisal in order to advise on whether there are any contextualdifferences between Scotland and England and Wales which should be taken into account inapplying the multiple technology appraisal here.

Question reference: S3O-01372

Asked by: David Stewart, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 22 November 2007

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of community wardens.

An evaluation of communitywardens was carried out by an independent research team from GEN Consulting. Thefindings suggested that community wardens can and do play an important role in supportingsafer and stronger communities. A copy of the full evaluation, which was publishedin March 2007, can be found on the Scottish Government website.

An economic appraisalof selected community warden schemes was also undertaken as part of evaluationof antisocial behaviour strategies at neighbourhood level. Again the results ofthis research can be found on the Scottish Government website.