- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 18 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Shelter Scotland report, Evictions by social landlords in Scotland 2016-2018, which stated that there has been a 44% increase in evictions in the last five years, what action it is taking to reduce eviction rates.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that eviction for rent arrears is a last resort and we have robust measures in place to help tenants in arrears sustain their tenancy wherever possible. The number of evictions in Scotland accounted for only 0.4% of social sector tenancies in 2017-18. L andlords need to have legal remedies to deal with the small minority of tenants who won’t engage with them to resolve their arrears.
Tenancy sustainment forms part of the Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans that each local authority has provided to the Scottish Government. We are identifying ways to work with social housing providers to use all opportunities to support housing sustainment, and we will specify expectations resulting from this work in the Homelessness Code of Guidance.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider contacting the Professional Standards Authority to learn how to best make use of the thousands of counsellors and psychotherapists available via the accredited registers programme.
Answer
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport met the Chair and Chief Executive of the Professional Standards Authority on Tuesday 6 November 2018 and discussed the programme at that time.
The Authority’s acknowledged expertise lies in the field of regulatory and governance standards. It has no statutory role relating to operational issues such as recruitment and deployment of specific professions.
Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland (COSCA) are a professional body for counselling and psychotherapy in Scotland and they maintain a voluntary register of practitioners and organisations in Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what the £100,000 allocated to Gypsy/Traveller children in 2019-20, as outlined in its "Every child, every chance: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022", has been used for, and what the outcomes have been.
Answer
When we published ‘Every Child, Every Chance: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2018-2022’ we made a commitment to invest £0.5m in flexible family learning with Gypsy/Traveller families over the lifetime of the Plan (2018-2020). This will build on additional funding of £275,000 (2018-20) to STEP to strengthen the delivery of education to children and young people in the Gypsy/Traveller community. This work is underway and – alongside engagement with Gypsy/Traveller communities – will inform how the Child Poverty Delivery Fund money will be spent over the next three years .
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in the Race Equality Action Plan - Year 1 highlight report, by what date the National Development Officer is expected to take up post, and what the post entails.
Answer
The Scottish Government has provided funding for a new Gypsy/Traveller National Development Officer at STEP to help improve educational experiences and outcomes for Gypsy/Travellers. Working closely with the Traveller Education Network, the post holder will support local authorities to test out, learn from and share innovative models of education provision. The National Development Officer took up post on 27 May 2019.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding PATH Scotland has received in each of the last three years, and how this funding supports the increasing number of minority ethnic people in Scotland.
Answer
PATH Scotland has received funding of £35k for each of the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 through the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund. This funding supports the Developing Management and Leadership Skills (DMLS) in Public Life, Education and Employment Programme, which has been developed as a positive action measure to address the absence of minority ethnic men and women in leadership roles at all levels of public life, education and employment.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its Race Equality Action Plan, what the additional £275,000 of funding in 2018-19 is in addition to, and what the funding has been used for.
Answer
The Scottish Government already provides funding of £113,000 per year (2017-2020) to the Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP) to support the delivery of education to children and young people from travelling cultures. In 2018-19 we awarded STEP additional funding of £275,000 to support and share best practice in delivering education to Gypsy/Traveller families for all ages and stages – from early years to adult learning – and to embed and systematise effective approaches across Scotland.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reference on page 50 of the Race Equality Action Plan - Year 1 highlight report to "the £775,000 referenced above in relation to Action 7", and this not being detailed in the report, whether it will provide details of Action 7 and its funding.
Answer
The Scottish Government is providing an additional £775,000 to strengthen the provision of education to Gypsy/Traveller families over the period 2018-2022. £275,000 of this was awarded to STEP in 2018-19 to support, share and systematise best practice in delivering education to children and young people from travelling cultures. This will pave the way for a further £0.5m from the Child Poverty Delivery Fund which will deliver flexible family education to Gypsy/Traveller families. This is in addition to the £113,000 per year (2017-2020) which we already provide to STEP.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Christina McKelvie on 17 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to each of the findings of the report by the British Red Cross and the Co-op Rise Network, Barriers to Belonging: An exploration of loneliness among people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, and what action it is taking to implement each of the recommendations.
Answer
The Scottish Government welcomes the valuable work that Red Cross and COOP are undertaking in tackling these issues. We note the recommendations within the report and will consider these further as we take forward the implementation of ‘A Connected Scotland’ our strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness and build social connections.
In December 2017 we published the Race Equality Action Plan outlining more than 120 actions we will take over the course of this Parliament to secure better outcomes for ethnic minorities in Scotland. The plan seeks to address some of the factors that may lead to social isolation and loneliness for minority ethnic communities, including poverty, housing, and community cohesion.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 15 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of its report, Our Vision to Improve Early Intervention in Psychosis in Scotland, whether it will provide further explanation of what is meant in the report by an "in-depth piece of diagnostic work is taking place with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland’s Argyll & Bute Health and Social Care Partnership to increase understanding of current EiP services,” and what this means in relation to specialist mental health services for the Highlands.
Answer
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) completed a diagnostic exercise with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s ESTEEM service (in January 2019) and NHS Highland’s Argyle and Bute Mental Health team (in February 2019). The aim of the exercise was to collect data to inform HIS’s Short Life Working Group on Early Intervention Psychosis (EIP) of the current early intervention service provision in an urban and rural environment.
The diagnostic exercise collected data on the current implementation of available evidence and guidelines, the current levels of demand, referral sources, clinical pathways, workforce, staff competencies (actual and required), and potential future developments that could be supported by a national action plan.
The results have been used to inform our Vision paper, which lays the groundwork for a nationwide improvement in EI Psychosis services in urban, semi-urban and rural settings.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 15 July 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to record data of patients with psychosis to remedy the “lack of data means” that is referred to in its "Early intervention in psychosis: action plan".
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Quality Indicator (QI) profile includes a specific measure (Quality Indicator T5) of the percentage of first presentation psychosis patients starting evidence-based treatment within 2 weeks.
Several of the other QIs are directly relevant in terms of providing better data about the care and treatment of people with recurring and long term mental health conditions, including psychosis. QIs that will provide relevant data include:
- E3 - % people with severe and enduring mental illness and / or learning disability who have had their BMI measured and recorded in the last 12 months.
- E4 - % of people seen for at least 1 month that show improvement in functioning using any clinical outcome measurement over the previous month.
- E5 - % of people seen for at least 1 month that show improvement in symptom severity using any clinical outcome measurement over the previous month.
- Eq5 - % of caseload with an active anticipatory care plan.
- P5 - % of people in mental health services seen for at least 1 month that show improvement in any personal outcome measurement over the previous month.
The QI profile is currently in the process of being rolled out across Scotland. Further information on the QIs can be found here:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/mental-health-quality-indicators-background-secondary-definitions/ .
