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: S4O-04600

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Fife regarding maternity services.

Question reference: S4W-26687

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 10 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many injuries were sustained in nurseries in 2014-15 as a result of woodwork activities.

The Care Inspectorate is the body responsible for inspecting standards of care in Scotland, including day care of children services. This includes ensuring that nurseries provide safe environments for young children, particularly where there are opportunities to play using materials which could pose risk, as in the case of woodwork.

The Care Inspectorate do not collect data specifically on numbers of injuries sustained through woodwork play, although all individual early learning and childcare settings are required to maintain their own records of any accidents and incidents. The Care Inspectorate investigate any cases where concerns have been raised by parents and take action where needed.

The Care Inspectorate is clear that they would consider woodwork to be an appropriate activity which can provide a positive learning experience for pre-school children, but that safeguards require to be in place: for example, it is important that children undertaking this activity are more closely supervised than for other, less risky activities, and that a suitable range of child-sized woodwork is provided.

Question reference: S4W-26688

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 10 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there are no Scotland-wide regulations in relation to woodwork activities in nurseries.

<>There are no Scotland-wide regulations in relation to woodwork activities in nurseries. The Care Inspectorate, as the body responsible for inspecting standards of care in Scotland, including day care of children services, have a remit to ensure that nurseries provide safe environments for young children, particularly where there are opportunities to play using materials which could pose risk, as in the case of woodwork. The Care Inspectorate is clear that they would consider woodwork to be an appropriate activity which can provide a positive learning experience for pre-school children, but that safeguards require to be in place: for example, it is important that children undertaking this activity are more closely supervised than for other, less risky activities, and that a suitable range of child-sized woodwork is provided.

National guidance materials for supporting young children’s learning, particularly the early level of curriculum for excellence, Pre-Birth to Three guidance and the Building the Ambition national practice guidance all make clear the benefits to children of working with different materials and tools, and of having the opportunity to engage in risky play.

Question reference: S4O-04502

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with Fife College regarding the future of lifelong learning.

Question reference: S4W-25800

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 11 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it can take in relation to the average waiting times for mental health appointments for under-18s in Lothian, which are reported to be three times longer than in Glasgow.

<>On 24 May 2015 I announced £85 million over five years for mental health. This is in addition to the £15 million over three years announced in November 2014 for the Mental Health Innovation Fund, £100 million in total. The funding will further improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and bring down waiting times.

In terms of waiting times for CAMHS in NHS Lothian, on the 26 February and 29 May 2015 I discussed the CAMHS waiting times target with the Chief Executive of NHS Lothian. During the discussion on 29 May 2015 I requested an updated delivery plan from NHS Lothian setting out how and when the board will meet the target.

The Scottish Government also provides support to NHS boards through its Quality and Efficiency Support Team, who have developed a number of resources to support service improvement. This includes a toolkit to help services understand demand, capacity, activity and queue.

We will continue to monitor NHS Lothian’s progress against the CAMHS HEAT target, through monthly submissions of data to Information Services Division.

Question reference: S4W-25805

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 11 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many schools employ a counsellor to provide mental health support to pupils.

<>This information is not held centrally. Under Curriculum for Excellence, all adults who work in schools have a responsibility to support and develop mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing. It is for the local authority and schools to decide how to develop their own approaches to implement curriculum for excellence, based on local needs and circumstances. Whilst an authority may wish to provide access to school based counselling in their schools, in other areas, schools utilise the skills of their pastoral care or guidance staff and liaise with health services for specialist support when required.

Every school has a named contact in specialist Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service services who can be contacted for advice if they have any concerns about a pupil and can provide ongoing support.

Question reference: S4W-25806

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 9 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of children referred to children’s panels have been diagnosed with a mental health issue.

<>The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration publishes statistics for all referrals made to the reporter and the number of those children then referred for a children’s hearing to consider compulsory supervision.

This national data does not include whether any children going to a children’s hearing have a diagnosed mental health problem. We would expect this to be included in any report sent to the reporter and so will be held on individual children’s case files.

Question reference: S4W-25804

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 9 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that the NHS boards that did not meet the new 18-week HEAT targets improve their performance.

Boards have made progress towards meeting the target and it is encouraging to see an increase in the number of people being seen. We are determined that boards continue working towards the 90% target we have set and a range of supports are in place to assist them with this.

I have spoken with representatives of each of the NHS Lothian boards not meeting the targets in February and May 2015 to emphasise the importance of prioritising meeting this target.

An additional £85 million over five years for mental health was announced in May 2015. This is in addition to the £15 million over three years announced in November 2014 for the Mental Health Innovation Fund. The funding will further improve child and adolescent mental health services and bring down waiting times. In addition we’ve invested over £16 million over the last five years to increase the number of psychologists working in specialist Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), with a further £3.5 million committed this year.

The Scottish Government also provides support to NHS boards through its Quality and Efficiency Support Team (QuEST), who have developed a number of resources to support service improvement. This includes a toolkit to help services understand demand, capacity, activity and queue. Further discussions are taking place between QuEST and each individual NHS board to review options for tailored improvement support in meeting the targets.

We will continue to monitor NHS boards’ progress against the CAMHS HEAT targets, through monthly submissions of data to the Information Services Division. This also gives boards the opportunity to set out any issues they are facing in meeting the target, for example, with data collection or systems.

Question reference: S4W-25802

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of under-18s have been diagnosed with mental health issues.

Question reference: S4W-25803

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 8 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what provisions are in place in (a) schools and (b) nurseries to identify children who may have undiagnosed mental health issues.

Within an education setting the named person will in most cases be a health visitor from birth until the age of 5 (or starting school) and then a head, deputy head or guidance teacher until the age of 18.

Acting as the central point of contact for any wellbeing concerns, the named person will have a clearer picture of the wellbeing of children and young people, and will be able to identify issues earlier and coordinate the delivery of support needed to help prevent problems becoming more serious.

All NHS boards have in place a named link worker. Due to the diversity of the role this has been achieved in a variety of ways using a range of models working together to meet the needs of the local population.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams also provide a consultancy to other children’s services which can lead to referral to CAMHS or provide staff with support to meet the child's needs.

We have seen a 61% increase in the number of children and young people being treated in CAMHS from 2640 in June 2012 to 4269 in March 2015.

CAMHS teams are indicating that part of the increase in referrals is due to better recognition of mental health problems by GPs, primary care, and staff in schools and other children services who refer on to CAMHS for treatment.