Chamber and committees

As I have recently announced, I am taking a number of steps to strengthen the inspection and regulatory regime. However, it is also right that as part of the reorganisation of the inspection regime and the establishment of the Care Inspectorate that we sought to achieve efficiencies and deliver savings.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03673 on 17 November 2011. 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.

Sir Ian Kennedy’s report on the recent review of paediatric cardiac surgery at Yorkhill Hospital is awaited. I will consider publication in due course.

Local government is fully committed to the preventative spend approach and to making an appropriate financial contribution to the Change Fund.

The expenditure in total across the spending review period is £272 million for the Early Years Change Fund.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03568 on 8 November 2011. 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.

The Scottish Government has not announced a review of the National Care Standards. I am giving consideration to such a review in the context of work on the integration of health and social care services, new models of care and the implementation of the dementia standards and will keep the Parliament informed.

The Care Inspectorate develops its inspection plan by making a risk-based, intelligence-led assessment of each service. This ensures inspections are targeted, proportionate and effective. A range of factors influence this assessment including the needs of the people who use the service, the profile of the service and the history of that service. Further, inspectors have in-built flexibility to extend the time devoted to the inspection of individual services where they have concerns, where issues emerge during inspection visits or where the Care Inspectorate is notified of specific issues within a service.

For workforce planning purposes, please see the following table detailing average inspection times which are used by the Care Inspectorate to inform staffing and budget allocations:

Average Inspection Hours Care Homes for:

Note: The above is the average inspection hours that are applied where risk has been assessed as medium. Services where risk is assessed as low are likely to receive less inspection time than the above averages and similarly where risk is assessed as high services are likely to receive more inspection time than the above averages.

The Care Inspectorate is currently preparing its Inspection Plan for 2012-13. Under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 the plan will be consulted on and will also be subject to ministerial approval. Once finalised, the plan will be published on the Care Inspectorate’s website.

As I have recently announced, I will bring forward regulations so that the Care Inspectorate will carry out a minimum of one announced inspection of certain older people’s care services. The forthcoming changes to the inspection frequency will be fed into the development process of the Inspection Plan for 2012-13.

In addition to the inspections scheduled in the plan, the Care Inspectorate will continue to inspect more frequently on the basis of the intelligence it receives through complaints, notifications from providers, local authorities and police and other risk assessment information. The Care Inspectorate also undertakes random sample checks of services over the course of the year. Some care homes will, therefore, require more than one yearly inspection depending on the risk-based and intelligence-led assessment of that service.

It is for partnerships to agree locally how to deal with underspend or slippage in 2011-12, the initial year of the Change Fund’s operation, as long as this meets the objectives of their Change Plans. Any agreed underspends will be carried forward to 2012-13 and partnerships will ensure this is spent on Change Fund Plans.

The Scottish Government provides an annual allocation to every NHS board under the Sexual Health and Bloodborne Virus Framework, and a component of this funding is for the prevention of blood borne viruses. NHS boards utilise this funding to address the prevention of hepatitis B and C, as well as HIV.

In 2011-12 the following funding was provided to NHS boards for BBV Prevention purposes: