Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland (2011) set out the minimum standard of care to which people with dementia, including early onset dementia, are entitled to. On-going national implementation of the Promoting Excellence dementia workforce skills and knowledge framework (2011) is supporting local services deliver those standards.

Under 65s have different post-diagnostic support needs in areas such as maintaining their community connections and accessing peer support. Our national post-diagnostic target, underpinned by a commitment that everyone diagnosed from 1 April 2013 will receive a minimum of a year’s worth of dedicated support, coordinated by a trained link worker and regardless of age, is based on Alzheimer Scotland’s 5 Pillar person centred support model and will help meet those needs.

Last year, Health Scotland published Younger people with dementia: living well with your diagnosis. Developed in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, it provides a range of insights and information from younger people with dementia and their family carers in their own words about what helps to live well with the diagnosis.

Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to assess the needs of people and decide whether they should arrange any services and, if so, which services. Local authorities are expected to ensure that the resources available are used in the most effective way to meet individual care needs. Under Section 87(1A) of the 1968 Act, a local authority may charge for the adult non-residential, non-personal care it provides.

This information is not held centrally.

Projected figures are approximations based on prevalence modelling only. Using the Eurocode prevalence model, there are approximately 3,000 people with dementia under 65 in Scotland, out of an approximate total of 86,000 cases of dementia.

The national dementia post-diagnostic HEAT target states that by 2015-16 all people diagnosed from April 2013, (including all people under 65 with the illness), will have a minimum of a year’s worth of dedicated post-diagnostic support, coordinated by a named link worker. The data collected centrally in connection with this target includes the age of the recipient of the service. This data will be available once it is of sufficient quality.

We know that of the 86,000 people currently living with dementia in Scotland, around 3,000 are under 65.

Last year, Health Scotland published Younger people with dementia: living well with your diagnosis. Developed in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, it provides a range of insights and information from younger people with dementia and their family carers in their own words about what helps to live well with the diagnosis.

There are specific challenges for this group. Rarer forms of dementia are more common in under 65s and can be more difficult to diagnose.

Under 65s have different post-diagnostic support needs, in areas such as maintaining their community connections and accessing peer support.

Our national post-diagnostic target, underpinned by a commitment that everyone diagnosed from 1 April 2013 will receive a minimum of a year’s worth of dedicated support, coordinated by a trained link worker and regardless of age, is based on Alzheimer Scotland’s 5 Pillar person centred support model and will help meet those needs.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

We know that of the 86,000 people currently living with dementia in Scotland, around 3,000 are under 65.

Last year, Health Scotland published Younger people with dementia: living well with your diagnosis. Developed in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, it provides a range of insights and information from younger people with dementia and their family carers in their own words about what helps to live well with the diagnosis.

There are specific challenges for this group. Rarer forms of dementia are more common in under 65s and can be more difficult to diagnose.

Under 65s have different post-diagnostic support needs, in areas such as maintaining their community connections and accessing peer support.

Our national post-diagnostic target, underpinned by a commitment that everyone diagnosed from 1 April 2013 will receive a minimum of a year’s worth of dedicated support, coordinated by a trained link worker and regardless of age, is based on Alzheimer Scotland’s 5 Pillar person centred support model and will help meet those needs.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20424 on 24 April 2014. 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.

Potential support for footpaths is proposed under the next Scotland Rural Development Programme, but final decisions have yet to be made. Scottish Ministers will carefully consider all feedback received from the latest consultation which closed on 28 February 2014, before our proposals are finalised.

The Scottish Government also provides support through one-off projects funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, the two National Park Authorities and through the Sustrans’ Community Links programme. Furthermore, a number of ad hoc walk/cycle path projects to construct new path networks have been funded by contributions from the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Action Fund – Indeed I had the pleasure of opening one such project at the Tweed Valley Railway Path near Peebles in August 2013.

NHS pay is set with reference to the recommendations of the NHS Pay Review Body (for Agenda for Change staff) and the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (for doctors and dentists). The Scottish Government values the advice of these UK bodies and would anticipate continuing to make use of either these or equivalent bodies going forward, although no specific discussions have taken place with the UK Government on this issue.

With regard to direct pay bargaining, Scotland already has highly developed NHS partnership arrangements. Any direct negotiation on pay is already taken forward through these structures and this will continue to be the case in the future.

Information on how many NHS addiction services have service level agreements in place with Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) is not held centrally. It is for ADPs to commission services to meet the needs of the local population and to ensure services are monitored.