Chamber and committees

This Scottish Government continues to work closely with its partners in the region to deliver the West Lothian Economic Growth Plan, which was agreed following the announcement in 2012 that the Halls of Broxburn plant would close with the loss of 1,700 jobs. The Plan sets out a range of interventions, including those that support manufacturing jobs and businesses, and contributes to inclusive economic growth in the West Lothian area and through this to National outcomes.

We have supported the delivery of the Plan with £12 million of additional resource which, along with existing budgets, represents an overall package of financial support of £29 million to strengthen the West Lothian economy. The independent 3 year evaluation of the 5 year Plan, completed in March 2016, demonstrated that interventions that formed part of the Plan had, at that time, supported the creation of 2,395 additional jobs and had specifically supported 450 former Halls employees with training to assist them in finding new employment.

Future activity will continue to develop the West Lothian business base with grants and investment explicitly linked to creating new jobs and to support a growing and more resilient economy, strengthening West Lothian businesses to make them more competitive. The Plan supports manufacturing companies through, for example, capacity building and diversification, and will continue to do so going forward.

In addition to that targeted support, our main economic development agency in the area, Scottish Enterprise, works with Scottish Development International, the investment and trade promotion agency of the Scottish Government, to promote West Lothian as an inward investment location. Scottish Enterprise currently account manages 93 companies in West Lothian; a high number of which are involved in manufacturing, and Scottish Enterprise works intensively with these 93 companies to support their growth ambitions. By way of example, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, an arm of our Enterprise agency activities, delivers specialist advice, one-to-one support and training for manufacturing businesses of all sizes in West Lothian. The Scottish Government is engaging with stakeholders to respond to potential impacts of potential job losses in both manufacturing companies and the potential loss of HMRC jobs.

We intend to publish the first annual report on the Mental Health Strategy 2017 – 2027 in Summer 2018.

Data detailing spending on additional support for learning is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). There are four years of data available on spending for additional support for learning, from 2012-13 to 2015-16.

There are issues around the quality of the data on spending on additional support for learning at a local authority level. Work is on-going to improve the consistency of the data that is returned. However this means that making comparisons between local authorities and between years should be done with care.

Table 1 shows gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education from 2012-13 to 2015-16.

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 2 shows the percentage of total gross revenue expenditure on education by local authorities which is accounted for by spending on additional support for learning.

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 3 shows the average per-pupil spending on additional support for learning by local authority. This data shows gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning in primary, secondary and special education from the local financial returns, divided by the number of pupils identified as having additional support needs in the pupil census during that year.

Sources:

1. Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

2. Pupil Census – published annually - for further details go to; http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus

The Scottish Government funds the ALISS Programme at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE). The ALLIANCE works to increase awareness of ALISS with GPs through a range of engagement mechanisms. This includes embedding ALISS in the practices involved in the Links Worker Programme and those involved in the House of Care programme. In addition, communications activity has included presentations and exhibition stands at local and national events including the Scottish National Users Group and Scottish Clinical Information Management in Practice conferences, the Royal College of General Practitioners annual conference, and the ‘Next steps for primary care in Scotland’ seminar in January 2017.

The Scottish Government expects food law enforcement bodies to protect consumers, support responsible businesses and take enforcement action where that is necessary.

I have been advised by Food Standards Scotland (FSS) that they do not use Which?’s approach to rank local authorities as it does not consider the nature or variety of formal enforcement actions taken by local authorities, the individual local authority enforcement policy, nor the very varied food business profile within local authority areas.

FSS independently audits local authorities to assess the capability and capacity of environmental health services. Reports from these audits provide valuable feedback on the service and contain advice on areas where improvement is necessary or recommended in order for local authorities to properly fulfil their obligations under Scotland’s Food Law Code of Practice. Good practice is also shared with local authorities through Scotland’s Food Enforcement Liaison Committee.

(a) The Scottish Government is committed to providing high quality eye care throughout Scotland. The eye examination, introduced in 2006, is free to all UK residents and assesses not only whether or not a patient requires glasses/contact lenses, but provides a full eye health assessment which can help identify treatable eye conditions at an early stage in their development. An Optometrist will screen patients for conditions such as Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy and refer those with the disease to the hospital eye service for lifelong treatment.

(b) The Scottish Government introduced its long-term strategy for meeting the needs of people with deafness and/or sight loss, See Hear, in April 2014. The Strategy was backed by £2 million of Scottish Government funding over 2014-15 and 2015-16, which was allocated equitably across the country to support implementation, with a further £320,000 in 2016-17 to continue to support the delivery.

To further develop eyecare services in Scotland, in August 2016 I announced a Review of community eyecare services. This is in the context of developments we are making to primary care and will look at what more can be done to ensure that patients can receive more treatment in a community setting where appropriate, improving patient outcomes and removing some of the burden from secondary care.

The information requested is published as part of the Pupil Census Supplementary Data each year. These publications are available from: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/dspupcensus

There is no guidance from Scottish Government on the number of emergency contacts that can be held for residents in sheltered housing accommodation.

(a) NHS boards are responsible for the design, delivery and management of services to their population. The support they provide will differ depending on their population’s needs.

(b) Decisions concerning the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients are individual. They involve professional judgement of the patient’s clinician, together with meaningful conversations with the patient that allows them to share decisions relating to their care and is based on understandable evidence about effect. The use of idebenone (Raxone®) to manage Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) is highly specialist for a very specific condition, and this medicine is licensed only for use in this way.

The Scottish Government is clear that patient safety is a priority, therefore all medicines must be fully tested and researched before they can be licensed and made available on the NHS and this is the same for idenenone (Raxone®). This is in line with the license granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the use of idenenone (Raxone®) under exceptional circumstances for the treatment of LHON.

A price cap is in place through the national framework contract. On 5 May 2017 a new medical framework will be in place which means that the majority of locums supplied to NHSScotland will receive NHS rates of pay. This is ultimately better value for money than hiring staff from non-framework agencies.

Locally, boards should reduce expenditure on agency staff by improvements to governance arrangements, and by developing Regional Medical Banks to ensure access to internal staff before approaching an agency