Chamber and committees

Details of the UK Budget consequentials and other agreed transfers prior to, and post, the 2011 Scottish Spending Review follow:

The percentage of 2013-14 Scottish budget committed to the three change funds, including contributions from local government and NHS boards, is: (a) 0.352% (£100 million) to the Reshaping Care for Older People Fund; (b) 0.234% (£66.5 million) to the Early Years Change Fund; and (c) 0.007% (£2 million) to the Reducing Reoffending Change Fund. The change funds do not represent total spend on preventative activity.

Prescribing costs are funded from NHS board baseline budget allocations provided by the Scottish Government.

Territorial NHS boards received a 2.9% increase in baseline funding in 2012-13. Subject to Scottish Parliament approval, territorial NHS boards will receive increases in baseline funding of 3.3% and 3.1% in 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. It is for NHS boards to determine how best to utilise baseline funding to meet the healthcare needs of their resident population.

NHS Scotland pays 13.5% of an employee’s pensionable pay into the NHS pension scheme. The total amount paid in the financial year 2010-11 was £595 million. The Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on the NHS England and Wales pension scheme.

Tri-partite negotiations involving trades unions, employers and the Scottish Government are being taken forward at individual scheme level. Negotiations for reform of public service pensions began in March 2012 and these are ongoing. Regrettably, these negotiations have been hampered by a number of emerging constraints from the UK Government. I continue to seek clarification from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of the scope available to the Scottish Government to negotiate pensions arrangements in line with Scottish circumstances.

Currently the annual scheme income from contributions exceeds annual expenditure on pension benefits in payment, which generates an in-year cash flow surplus. In 2010-11 that figure was £161 million. That in-year cash flow surplus is forecast to begin to reverse for the NHS scheme from 2013-14.

It is important to recognise that in-year cash-flow is not considered to be an appropriate measure of scheme sustainability because contributions made today effectively ‘buy’ future pension benefits, which must be honoured when those benefits fall due in the future.

The UK Government’s introduction of Universal Credit in October 2013 will have fundamental implications for how future Council Tax support might be provided. However, more detail on the operation of Universal Credit is required from the UK Department for Work and Pensions before a robust means of delivering council tax support beyond 2014 can be determined and consequently no decisions have been made.

The Scottish Government, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and NHS boards are taking forward a number of actions in order to deliver safe, effective, person-centred care every time for older people in acute hospitals.

We are working with NHS boards and clinical experts to improve care for people with cognitive impairment, to reduce and manage falls and to improve pressure area care, nutritional care and care co-ordination.

We are training 300 NHS staff as Dementia Champions and have supported Alzheimer Scotland to appoint a Dementia Nurse Consultant to each NHS board. Other work focuses on personal information documentation, environmental improvements, capacity and consent issues and staff training.

I expect boards to implement their post-inspection action plans as a matter of urgency.

This information is not held centrally. I will ask the Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland to write to you with the information you have requested.