Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has provided the following table setting out rostered resources for these stations.

Notes:

o/c = on call from home address.

PRU = Paramedic Response Unit.

The Scottish Ambulance Service have confirmed that the accident and emergency ambulances operating from the stations at Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Arrochar are rostered to be double crewed by a paramedic and a technician. The Paramedic Response Unit that operates from the Vale of Leven Station is rostered to be crewed by a Paramedic.

It is not possible to provide the information in the format requested. However, the Scottish Ambulance Service has provided the following information which sets out all shifts not covered. These may be seen in the context of over 5,500 rostered shifts for this time period across the three stations. Reasons for shifts not covered will include staff sickness.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-02448 on 21 September 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 Ambulance Service has advised that the cost of temporary and agency staff since 2007-08 has been:

The budget for 2011-12 is currently £20,000 but this figure is subject to revision over the course of the year. The figures are not held centrally broken down between temporary and agency staff.

No transfers of established inspection staff took place from the Care Commission, Social Work Inspection Agency and HM Inspectorate of Education on 1 April 2010. These bodies were still operating until 31 March 2011.

However, as at 1 April 2011, the following established inspection staff transferred to the new Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland from those bodies:

Two hundred and sixty four established inspection staff from the Care Commission; 18 established inspection staff from SWIA; and six established inspection staff from HMIE.

Kinship care is when a looked after child is placed by a local authority with an approved kinship carer. The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 defines a potential kinship carer as a person who is related to the child or who is known to the child and with whom the child has a pre-existing relationship. A local authority has the power to decide whether to approve such a relative or person as a kinship carer for the child. The 2009 Regulations also set out the requirements and procedures which must be followed when a child is placed with a kinship carer.

The vast majority of the funding provided to local government by the Scottish Government, including the funding for kinship care allowances, is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives.

Data on the number of kinship carers of looked after children is not held centrally.

As of 31 July 2010 there were 3,172 children living in kinship care arrangements.

On 1 April 2011 the establishment figures for inspection staff at Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland was 286.78 full time equivalent.