Chamber and committees

11 January 2018. The answer provides details of how the funding is being used.  

The Data Protection Act (DPA)1998 requires the Scottish Government to process personal data fairly and lawfully. The funding provided by the Scottish Government has been used to fund a very small number of posts, therefore, releasing further information could lead to individuals being identified which would breach their right to privacy.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government is assured that NHS Lothian has sufficient NHS specialist dementia bed provision and notes that the Board and its statutory partners recognise that there is a need to expand provision of specialist care home places. The Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership is revising its strategic commissioning plan, within which a market facilitation plan will outline how the partnership will work with service providers to ensure the right level of capacity is available across the city.

In addition, NHS Lothian have a range of services designed to help avoid unnecessary admissions into specialist or acute care and to support people with dementia to remain at home for as long as possible, including post-diagnostic support, complex care, rapid response and older adult intensive home care services.

We continue to support the local whole-system transformation of dementia care across Integration Joint Boards, to reduce any unnecessary dependency on specialist dementia beds and increase the capacity and quality of community-based care. This includes action in our 2017-2020 National Dementia Strategy to increase access to post-diagnostic support, improve integrated home care and develop a national approach to dementia palliative and end of life care. In addition, we have funded Alzheimer Scotland’s national specialist nurse to take forward a review of specialist NHS dementia care. We expect that this report will be published within the next couple of months. The review will include an overall assessment of the quality of current provision, how well services are integrated within the broader health and social care landscape and recommendations on how services might be re-configured locally as part of the wider picture of whole-system re-design.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating a modern, inclusive Scotland which protects, respects and realises internationally recognised human rights, and is working with the whole of Scottish society to deliver a shared vision for a Scotland where everyone can live a life of human dignity. The Scotland Act 1998 requires that all Scottish Parliament legislation and all acts of members of the Scottish Government must be compatible with core ECHR rights (“the Convention rights”). In addition, the Human Rights Act 1998 ensures that every public authority in Scotland is obliged to act compatibly with the Convention rights and enables human rights cases to be taken in domestic courts.

We believe that the 2003 Act is fully compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The 2003 Act has never been found, in part or in whole, by the European Court of Human Rights to be not compliant with ECHR.

The Mental Health strategy 2017-2027 recognises as a theme the importance of human rights and as part of this, has committed to actions around reviewing various aspects of mental health and incapacity legislation use in Scotland. We have recently implemented an amending act in mental health law and there are two reviews underway at the moment which are key, the AWI reform work and the review of how the 2003 Act meets the needs of those with learning disability and autism.

The Return to Practice programmes are approved and monitored by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and must meet all of their requirements; this includes support and mentorship in practice by a qualified mentor and final assessment by a ‘sign-off’ mentor.

All mentors must complete a mentor preparation programme and have regular mentor updates according to NMC criteria. The sign off mentor has additional preparation for the role and must have experience as a sign off mentor.

Return to Practice programmes for former nurses and midwives whose registration has lapsed across Scotland are administered by NHS Education Scotland (NES).

Scottish Government funding for Return to Practice schemes was reintroduced in April 2015. Since then, almost 380 former nurses and midwives have commenced Return to Practice programmes, exceeding the initial target of attracting back 75 former nurses and midwives each year.

NES is currently planning an evaluation of both the nursing and midwifery programmes which will include reviewing participants’ experience and the impact of the programmes.

As part of a package of measures to increase the number of nurses and midwives working in Scotland we will extend and expand the highly successful Return to Practice programme as well as delivering an estimated 2,600 additional nursing and midwifery training places, enhanced access programmes for support workers, and improving recruitment, retention and completion rates, particularly in remote and rural areas.

The draft Quality Performance Indicators are currently in development and the process is yet to be finalised in detail.

In regards to waiting times, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14263 on 20 February 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The remit of The National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain includes guiding the improvement of chronic pain management at all levels of health and social care and informing effective policy development. Workforce numbers are at record levels under this Government and the recently published parts 1 and 2 of our National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan set out how we will work with partners to secure sustainable NHS staffing. Increasing staff numbers is only part of the solution, and the Plan sets out how we intend to recruit, develop and retain the multidisciplinary and flexible workforce we need to continue to deliver high quality healthcare for the people of Scotland. This will ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to continue to deliver high quality care that meets the needs of Scotland’s population

In terms of waiting times, an additional £50 million is being made available to NHS Boards to improve waiting times for all stages of a patient’s journey through the NHS – the outpatient consultation, any tests required and treatment. £4.9 million is being provided to NHS Grampian as part of this initiative.

Officials have also been in contact with NHS Grampian to discuss their pain service and waiting time figures. Following a recent recruitment they will be offering additional clinics over the next few weeks to help reduce waiting times.

From 2015-16 Scottish Government has been investing an additional £2.5 million of recurring funding in the Specialist Nursing and Care Fund to improve access to specialist nursing support. Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, however the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including recruitment of specialist nurses, are therefore matters for these bodies.

Action for ME were awarded over £300,000 in 2016 from the Scottish Government’s Transforming Self-Management Fund.

No bids for 2018-19 funding have been received from Action for M.E. or any other M.E.-related organisations. Like all applications for funding from third sector organisations bids would be assessed to establish whether they assist in the delivery of Scottish Government National Outcomes and Indicators.