Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has set out its position on the impact on devolved services of the UK Government’s Welfare Reform Bill in the Supplementary Legislative Consent Memorandum lodged on 1 November 2011.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/25202.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-03684 on 14 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 Care Inspectorate does consider staffing levels at the point of registration and post registration regulation, including at inspections. The Care Inspectorate’s findings are published on their website: www.careinspectorate.com. In addition, each care home should display a staffing schedule alongside the certificate of registration.

From 1 April 2011 all care homes must keep a record of dependency levels of service users and these should be updated at a minimum of every four weeks. These dependency assessments should inform the numbers, skill mix and deployment of staffing in a service.

There is a statutory requirement on care service providers to ensure that at all times suitably qualified and competent persons are working in the care service, as are appropriate for the health and welfare of service users. The National Care Standards also require care home staff to have professional training and expertise which allows them to meet the needs of residents. Compliance with these requirements is part of the Care Inspectorate’s inspection process. The Care Inspectorate has a range of measures it can take to ensure that providers comply with requirements.

The Care Inspectorate has a responsibility to scrutinise local authorities to provide an objective, evidence-based assessment of how well people are being served by their social work services; make a constructive contribution towards the further improvement of these services; help safeguard the interests of people who use services and carers, and help local authorities to develop their own approach to improving services. The Care Inspectorate will publish the findings and recommendations for each local authority, and through the Public Services Reform (Act) 2010, local authorities are required to take account of inspection reports and recommendations.

Local authorities are also under a duty to demonstrate best value which requires them to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in performance and in doing so to have regard to economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equal opportunities requirements and to the achievement of sustainable development.

We believe this current balance of duties and responsibilities adequately covers the current landscape for delivery of social care services to older people. As we move towards greater integration of health and social care this balance may need to be revisited.

The skills mix of staffing for individual care homes is dependent on the assessed needs of its residents. There are therefore no plans to issue guidance setting out the percentage of care homes requiring the services of a registered nurse.

In addition, the Care Inspectorate has responsibilities in relation to staffing, and these are set out clearly in the answer to question S4W-03684 on 14 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.

As of 31 December 2010 there were 920 care homes for older people, of which 889 care homes had completed Annual Returns. Of these:

514 (58%) provide nursing care internally

257 (29%) use external nurses to provide nursing care (and have no internal provision)

118 (13%) do not provide nursing care.

Not all care homes for older people completed annual returns. Homes that did not complete an annual return are mainly services that are newly registered in the three months preceding the annual return date as they are not obliged to do so.

The police investigation is still ongoing and it is expected to continue into next year due to the wide ranging lines of enquiry.

Scottish Government guidance on the Reshaping Care for Older People Change Fund for 2011-12 was issued on 23 December 2010. Further guidance covering the Change Fund for 2012-13 will be issued to all 32 partnerships and other interested parties later in 2011.

Recommendation 4.1 of New Directions, A Report on the Review of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 (“Millan Report”), was that “the provisions of the new Mental Health Act should apply where there is the presence of mental disorder,” whilst Recommendation 4.2 stated that “there should be three categories of mental disorder: mental illness, learning disability and personality disorder.”

Millan’s recommendations 4.6 and 4.7 were that Ministers should carry out a review of the provision relating to people with learning disabilities and autism, but pending any change continue to proceed with the legislation as it currently stands.

In terms of any reform of the 2003 act to remove the provisions in relation to persons with learning disability and autism, this would require careful consideration of all the relevant issues, and there are therefore no plans to reform the 2003 act in that way at this time before any such review has been undertaken.

The minimum qualification requirement for a manager is SVQ level 4 plus relevant management qualification (minimum of 60 credits and at SCQF level 8).

The qualification requirements for supervisors and support workers in care at home services has not yet been set. The Scottish Social Services Council has undertaken a consultation exercise with the sector on what qualifications will be acceptable and we await the outcome of that consultation.

Registration of managers commenced in January 2011 with an end date of January 2014. The planned date for commencement of registration of supervisors is 2014 with an end date in 2017 and for support workers commencement in 2017 with an end date of 2020.