- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Audit Scotland paper, Best Value Assurance Report: East Lothian, which suggests some areas of underperformance in education, what action it is taking to assist the local authority in addressing concerns regarding (a) the proportion of children entering positive destinations, (b) the performance of children in the middle Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation groups, (c) pupil numeracy and (d) pupil exclusion rates.
Answer
The role of the Scottish Government and the various national agencies is to set national education policy and a national framework for improvement which will support a school and teacher-led system. The National Improvement Framework and Improvement Plan sets out the improvement activity that the Scottish Government has been taking forward to help support the achievement of improved learner outcomes across Scottish education. The establishment of the Regional Improvement Collaboratives forms a key element of our education reform agenda, by providing support to local authorities to help deliver the twin aims of excellence and equity, ensuring that every child achieves the highest standards in literacy and numeracy, and ensuring every child has the same opportunity to succeed, with a particular focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 22 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in NHS Borders.
Answer
Our 2018 Programme for Government has mental health at its very heart. It contains a package of measures to support positive mental health and prevent mental ill health, and is backed by £250 million of additional investment. There is a clear focus on children and young people’s mental health, and particularly on preventative approaches and early intervention. We want our young people to get the right help at the right time.
From 2016-17 to 2019-20 we’re investing an additional £150 million in mental health services, including £54 million to help boards improve their CAMHS and Psychological Therapies performance. From this package we are providing NHS Borders with a total of £883,602 for workforce capacity building and workforce development.
On 29 June 2018 we announced a taskforce on Children and Young People’s Mental Health, chaired by Dr Dame Denise Coia – following the recommendations of the Rejected Referrals report.
The taskforce will examine our whole approach to mental health services, backed with £5 million funding. It will develop a blueprint for how services, and surrounding support, can better meet the needs of children and young people.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government on what date in December 2018 payments of the next Carers Allowance Supplement will begin, and by what date all payments will be made.
Answer
The next payment of Carer's Allowance Supplement will be made to the majority of qualifying carers on 14 December. A small number of complex cases will require further investigation, these will be made by 24 December.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 21 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce waiting times for people with drugs and alcohol issues in NHS Borders.
Answer
It is a priority for Scottish Government to ensure that people who require drug or alcohol treatment are seen within three weeks of referral.
Throughout 2017-18, NHS Borders identified staffing issues were affecting their Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times performance. The Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) National Support Team within Scottish Government worked with Borders, providing support where necessary.
During the second half of 2017 and early 2018 Borders completed their staff recruitment improvement process and for the first quarter of 2018-19 (April – June), NHS Borders met (and exceeded) the 90% Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Time target with 97.3%.
In addition, our forthcoming drug and alcohol strategy will address how services can be supported to keep delivering waiting times while encouraging new models that are more accessible to people.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 21 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the time that it takes A&E attendees to be assessed at NHS Borders.
Answer
NHS Borders regularly achieves the four hour emergency care target with latest weekly data showing performance for w/e 11 November at 96.7%. Performance for September 2018 was 96.2%, which is the highest level of performance in any equivalent period since 2015.
Notwithstanding this level of performance, the Scottish Government continues to work with all health boards, including NHS Borders, to support sustainable solutions for the future. Through our improvement programme we are focusing on:
- Daily Dynamic Discharge (DDD) – assessing DDD in all wards will identify areas for improvement based on this assessment
- Streamlining and standardising patient pathways - Process mapping the patient journey through the department in order to identify delays in the system, this will include promoting safety and maximising patient outcomes that will result in greater productivity and efficiency.
- Utilisation of Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) – better utilisation of the AAU will enhance capacity in the emergency department reducing delays to first assessment.
To support this improvement work, NHS Borders has received £126,249 for 2018-19 and a further £197,790 to support winter planning.
We will continue to work closely with the Health Board as we go in to winter.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many Social Security Scotland staff are covered by the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice regulations.
Answer
The terms of the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice (COSOP) apply in the relevant transfer of staff between the UK Government and the Scottish Government. Scottish Government are engaging with DWP to consider the impact of functions transferring to identify staff who may be in scope of transfer.
At present there are no staff working within Social Security Scotland who have transferred under the terms of COSOP.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Paul Wheelhouse on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether local authority spending on road maintenance should be kept at current levels.
Answer
The Scottish Government has treated councils fairly despite cuts made by the Scottish budget by the UK Government. In 2018-19, councils received funding through the local government finance settlement of £10.7 billion. This represents an increase in day-to-day spending of £175 million with an increase in capital spending of £89.9 million.
It is the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and allocate financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2018
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what assurances it can give rail commuters in Tweedbank regarding service reliability this winter, in light of more than 50% of trains not arriving on time in the last month.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 21 November 2018
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what budget it currently expects the new social security agency to have in each year from 2018 to 2021 for (a) staffing, (b) IT/technology, (c) facilities and property and (d) other ongoing expenses.
Answer
The financial memorandum for the Social Security (Scotland) Bill, published in June 2017, outlined the estimate costs for the new social security agency. These estimates were drawn from the Outline Business Case for the Agency for Social Security in Scotland, published in April 2017. In a steady state, depending on the model of delivery for assessments, the point estimate costs of the social security agency range between £144 million and £156 million per annum in 2016-17 prices. This estimate was broken down as between £83 million to £84 million per annum on operating costs; an estimate £21 million per annum on pre claim support services; between £25 million to £35 million per annum on assessment services; and between £15 million to £17 million per annum on estates.
Social Security devolution is a complex and multi-year programme of activity. This process is not yet complete and the social security agency will not reach a steady state until devolution is complete. The Scottish Parliament will set a budget annually for Social Security Scotland as part of the normal budget process.
On 1 September 2018, Social Security Scotland became an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. The 2018-19 budget for the Agency is expected to be £17.7 million. This can be broken down as £7.2 million on staffing; £3.4 million on IT/technology; £0.7 million on facilities and property; and £6.4 million on other expenses. The 2018-19 budget for the Agency will be confirmed through the spring revision to the Scottish Government's 2018-19 budget.
- Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how much it expects to spend in each of the financial years 2018-19 to 2023-24 on (a) carer’s allowance, (b) carer’s allowance supplement, (c) discretionary housing payments, (d) the Scottish Welfare Fund, (e) employability services, (f) Fair Start Scotland, (g) Work Able Scotland, (h) Work First Scotland, (i) funeral expense assistance, (j) healthy start vouchers and (k) the Sure Start maternity grant.
Answer
As set out in the Scottish Fiscal Commission Act 2016, the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s independent forecasts of devolved social security expenditure are used to inform the Scottish Government’s budget.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission publish Scotland's Economic and Fiscal Forecasts on 31 May 2018. The spend for each year 16-17 to 23-24 for each of the services is contained in a table on page 152 of that report.
http://www.fiscalcommission.scot/media/1314/scotlands-economic-and-fiscal-forecasts-may-2018-full-report.pdf
The forecast expenditure for Funeral Expenses Payment, Healthy Start Vouchers and Sure Start Maternity Grant is based on current UK Government policy. Therefore this figure is not reflective of the Scottish Government’s proposed policy changes .
