I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-28349 on 17 November 2015 which provides information on useful current guidance which is available for use in supporting people who have been bereaved by suicide. NHS Health Scotland undertakes regular updates of all guidance and publications it produces, to ensure the information is up to date and still relevant. 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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is continuing to support people with learning disabilities living in care homes through the implementation of The keys to life in Scotland, and the development of a strategic plan, with identified outcomes to support the delivery of The keys to life – the Scottish learning disabilities strategy. This will concentrate on outcomes and key activities to support their achievement including supporting work with partners to ensure that people with learning disabilities are protected from neglect, exploitation and abuse.

National health and social care policy in Scotland is placing increasing emphasis on supporting people at home wherever possible. This applies to adults with learning disabilities, including those with the most complex needs. However, it is recognised that residential care for people with learning disabilities is still a choice and in some circumstances the best option to meet their outcomes. There is however, a need to ensure that the quality and consistency of these care homes ensures good outcomes for the residents. That is why the Scottish Government has asked Scotland Excel to develop a national framework agreement for the procurement of residential care.

We also worked with the Care Inspectorate to ensure care homes for adults with learning disabilities, as part of their inspections, asked about their awareness of two important reports: the Scottish Government’s The keys to life strategy for people with learning disabilities and recommendations from the report into Winterbourne View Hospital. This work will enable the Care Inspectorate to develop a more detailed inspection focus area in future inspections.

The Scottish Government is enhancing specialist support for people in dementia living in care homes and continues to invest around £500,000 per year in up skilling the dementia workforce which includes training and supporting staff providing specialist support for people with dementia living in care homes. To date over 800 Dementia Ambassadors are working in care homes, 70% of which are working in residential care and covering 350 services.

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The Scottish Government is enhancing specialist support for people in dementia living in care homes and continues to invest around £500,000 per year in developing the dementia workforce which includes training and supporting staff providing specialist support for people with dementia living in care homes. To date over 800 Dementia Ambassadors are working in care homes, 70% of which are working in residential care and covering 350 services.

The Care Inspectorate regulates and inspects registered care homes and care services in Scotland to make sure that they meet the right standards – including specialised services such as mental health, learning disabilities and dementia. They are all care homes and can be more flexible about the services they offer. They can meet all aspects of accommodation, support and care including nursing and end-of-life care.

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with East Renfrewshire Council regarding this as it is a matter for the local authority. It is the local authorities’ responsibility to set their own priorities in the delivery of local services. The Scottish Government, however, expects local authorities to consult with service users and carers when determining the resources to be allocated to centres for people with learning disabilities and other additional support needs.

The Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities was presented and accepted evidence that the fundamental causes of health inequalities are rooted in an unequal distribution of income, power and wealth, and that these causes influence the distribution of wider environmental influences on health such as the availability of good quality housing, work and education as well as access to services and social opportunities in an area. This wider environment shapes individual experiences resulting in unequal health outcomes.

Mental wellbeing is a complex phenomenon which can be influenced by a wide range of factors. It is difficult to attribute levels of wellbeing to particular circumstances or locations. However, it is already known that people living in the least deprived areas can be at risk of experiencing lower levels of mental wellbeing.

The Scottish Government is tackling mental wellbeing through the commitments set out in the mental health strategy and the suicide prevention strategy, as well as pursuing policies and practices to reduce the fundamental causes of health inequalities through wider action on improving housing, employability and infrastructure, for example our investment of £1.7 billion in affordable housing over the lifetime of this Parliament.

The Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) is the Scottish Government’s official measure of house condition but it is the responsibility of the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) to monitor landlords’ performance against the Scottish Housing Quality Standard target. The Scottish Government considers that the difference between the two sets of reported success rates can be attributed to the following factors: the different methodologies used by SHCS and the SHR for collecting information; the timing of these assessments; the purpose of the two data collections; the potential for the condition of the stock to be reported differently in the two surveys; and the fact that landlords will be applying their wider knowledge of their stock in the SHR return and the provisions for stock to be exempted in the SHR return and not in the SHCS.

We commissioned the Mental Health Foundation and Voices of Experience to undertake the 10 year follow up report. We have been working with the Mental Health Foundation to address the delays in publishing and can now assure you this will be published by Christmas 2015. The delays are related to staffing resources and the complexity of the work.

The number of patients admitted to a hospital outwith their health board of residence broken down by health board of residence and year is shown in the following table. The figures below for out of area treatment includes patients treated at other hospitals such as the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, even if that hospital is within the local health board area:

Source: SMR01 Information Services Division Scotland.

Circumstances will arise where a practice experiences capacity issues and is unable to routinely accept new patients onto its list. We expect health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to help manage the situation.

The information is not available in the format requested.

NHS Education for Scotland is responsible for the training placements of GPs in Scotland but it does not hold information on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. It has provided the following information that shows the number of hospital based GP training posts by deanery from 2011-15 (tables one to five), as well as a breakdown of the number of GP training practices by region for 2015 (table six). There can be up to three trainees in one practice at a time.

Table One:

Table Two:

Table Three:

Table Four:

Table Five:

Table Six:

Number of GP Training Practices by Region in 2015: