Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government supports a national infrastructure and related support for financial inclusion and financial awareness, including training for debt advisors and a Financial Learning Online Scotland website for financial capability practitioners. On 21 January 2013, the Deputy First Minister announced a £5.4 million funding package for advice services designed to help them manage the growing number of requests for help as a result of UK Government’s welfare reforms.

Work in communities across Scotland on financial inclusion and financial capability is taken forward by local authorities, who are well placed to assess local need for services and put in place appropriate provision.

The Scottish Government has funded the Chartered Institute of Housing to provide guidance to social landlords on the UK Government’s reforms to housing benefit. This includes guidance on the collection of arrears specifically and asks landlords to identify whether there are other ways of collecting unpaid rent which do not risk the tenancy. The guidance is published at:

http://www.cih.co.uk/resources/PDF/Scotland%20Policy%20Pdfs/Bedroom%20Tax/CIH_Bedroomtax_e.pdf.

We are supporting landlords to consider, and where necessary, adapt their practice in response to the UK Government’s housing benefit reforms. The guidance will be updated as required to reflect changes in this respect.

The Department for Work and Pensions publishes information on the number of housing benefit claimants on their website. This information is available at:

http://83.244.183.193/hb_la/#view=hblaview11&selectedWafers=0&selectedColumns=0

During November 2012, there were 481,830 housing benefit claimants in Scotland.

We do not hold information centrally on the number of housing benefit claimants who are also in receipt of disability living allowance. From responses to the Family Resources Survey 2010-11, we estimate that around 46% of housing benefit claimants are also in receipt of disability living allowance. This would suggest that around 222,000 claimants are in receipt of housing benefit and disability living allowance.

<>The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that eviction is the last resort. In August 2012, it introduced regulations under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 which require landlords to have exhausted all attempts to resolve the arrears with the tenant before taking action to evict. In June 2012 we published guidance for social landlords on these pre-action requirements. The guidance is published at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/2337. We will update the guidance to take account of the introduction of Universal Credit in due course.

We have also recently funded the Chartered Institute of Housing to provide guidance to social landlords on the UK Government’s reforms to housing benefit. This guidance highlights the challenges landlords are likely to face and asks landlords to identify whether there are other ways of collecting unpaid rent which do not risk the tenancy. The guidance is published at:

http://www.cih.co.uk/resources/PDF/Scotland%20Policy%20Pdfs/Bedroom%20Tax/CIH_Bedroomtax_e.pdf

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is a rare lung condition, the cause of which is unknown. It can be difficult to diagnose as the main symptoms are similar to other lung conditions. Diagnosis will usually be made by a respiratory specialist and may involve a number of tests including chest x-ray, CT scan and in some cases lung biopsy.

Respiratory Managed Clinical Networks have been established in all NHS health boards across Scotland, supported by pump priming funding from the Scottish Government. Our National Advisory Group (NAG) for Respiratory Managed Clinical Networks is working to develop a co-ordinated approach to improving respiratory services across Scotland and provides the opportunity for Local Managed Clinical Networks, patient representatives and stakeholders to discuss issues, identify solutions and share best practice.

Child protection statistics gathered for 2011-12 will include, for the first time, information on children affected by parental substance misuse. These figures will be published on the Scottish Government website in the spring.

The initial diagnosis, subsequent treatment and the ongoing aftercare that may be required by patients with cancer is a top clinical priority for both the Scottish Government and NHSScotland. The nature of aftercare required for patients treated for cancer will vary according to tumour type and will be determined by clinical judgement based on individual patient need and evidence-based, good practice guidelines.

A key component of the Scottish Government’s Cancer Taskforce Action Plan is the development and implementation of models of care which promote recovery of function and confidence after anti-cancer treatment, empowering patients to self manage where it is appropriate and right to do so and reducing the need for unnecessary face-to-face follow-up without impacting on cancer surveillance or outcomes.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, the NHS and local authorities to support a whole system redesign of care following active treatment of cancer.

The overall aim of this transforming care after treatment programme is to ensure that patients are prepared for and supported to live with the consequences of a cancer diagnosis and its treatment.

The programme promotes holistic needs assessment and personalised care planning for patients after treatment, development of follow-up risk stratification and implementation of appropriate models of care so that patients will receive the appropriate level of support and intensity of surveillance.

It is for clinicians to determine the frequency of follow up checks from a consultant following surgery for patients with cancer. It is expected that the necessity for and regularity of these checks will vary according to tumour type and will be determined by clinical judgement based on individual patient need and evidence-based, good practice guidelines.

The information requested on the number of NHS staff in West Scotland there are to provide patients being treated for cancer with follow-up health checks following surgery is not held centrally.