Chamber and committees

In 2012-13, the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £128,555, providing four whole-time members of staff, and non-pay costs of £161,254, which provided for:

Development of the Care Experience survey tool and Patient Opinion subscription

National Learning Session 1 and additional meeting costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning session.

In 2013-2014 the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £187,689 providing four members of staff, and non-pay costs of £328,712 providing:

Care Experience survey tool support and development, Patient Opinion subscription and programme evaluation

Nation Learning Sessions 2 and 3 and additional meetings costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning sessions.

£289,809 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2012-13, with £175,000 allocated by the Scottish Government and £114,809 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

£518,082 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2013-14, with £482,843 allocated by the Scottish Government and £35,239 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The allocation to Healthcare Improvement Scotland for 2014-15 has yet to be agreed, but is likely to be similar to the 2013-14 allocation.

Further allocations have been made to NHS boards to support their participation in the person-centred portfolio, including the Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative. Allocations have also been made to NHS Education for Scotland for a national training and workforce development plan to support the portfolio, and to the Health and Social Care Alliance for the People Powered Health and Wellbeing programme, which brings third sector expertise to the implementation of the Collaborative.

The Strategic Group on Women and Work was formed following the Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012. The first meeting was on 27 March 2013 with subsequent meetings held on 26 June 2013, 30 October 2013, 26 February 2014, and 7 May 2014.

The remit of the group is to:

Agree the range of actions and recommendations from the Women’s Employment Summit;

Agree priorities across each commission and the timescales for action and by whom;

Advise on actions to further address the challenges raised, in particular how those outwith the Government could support change, e.g. employers, the third sector, communities and education and training sector;

Monitor implementation of the agreed plans, reviewing progress and challenging inaction;

Agree the content of Ministerial reports to Parliament on progress; and

The group will meet 3 or 4 times a year.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland wrote to the Deputy First Minister on 2 May 2014 to offer to provide Scottish Ministers with a power to set the statutory cap on discretionary housing payments in Scotland using section 63 of the Scotland Act 1998. The Scottish Government has accepted this offer. At their meeting on 8 May 2014, the Deputy First Minister and the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland agreed to prioritise the progress of the section 63 order. The order will need to be agreed by both the Scottish and UK Governments before it is laid before both Houses of the Westminster Parliament and the Scottish Parliament. It will then go before the Privy Council. The Deputy First Minister will update the Scottish Parliament once a timescale has been agreed with the Scotland Office.

As set out in the Scottish Budget 2013-14, the Scottish Government will invest £7 million in each of the three years from 2013-14 to 2015-16 in a range of welfare reform mitigation measures such as for advice and support services. The most recent announcement on 24 April 2014 is for the Tackling Money Worries Programme which is to be administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).

The Scottish Government has approved that SLAB can spend up to £2.4 million on new projects focussing on supporting the outcomes of the revised Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland by connecting low income families with children to debt advice and to help them manage their money better at times where they are more vulnerable to debt.

The application period for the programme opened on 6 May 2014 and will close on
15 June 2014 after which SLAB will assess the proposals submitted. Once the bids have been assessed and applicants notified the list of successful projects will be published on the SLAB website.

Yes, the Scottish Government expects everyone affected by the bedroom tax who applies for a discretionary housing payment to be awarded one.

I wrote to the Welfare Reform Committee on 2 May 2014 to advise them of our intention to introduce the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Bill in June 2014. A copy of the letter is available at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Welfare_Reform_Committee/20140502_MB-MM_Scottish_Welfare_Fund.pdf.

This is a matter for Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).

I am advised that HIS have published a correction to the report and the local report compendium. This can be accessed via the HIS website:

http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/long_term_conditions/chronic_pain/where_are_we_now.aspx

The Scottish Welfare Fund guidance sets out the ringfencing arrangements for the Fund. The Scottish Welfare Fund guidance can be found on the Scottish Government website at:

http://scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/welfarereform/scottishwelfarefund/scottishwelfarefuindguidance.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20200 on 31 March 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.