Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government published Partnership Matters, first issued in 2005, subsequently refreshed in 2007 and again in May 2009. This is a guidance document which describes the roles and responsibilities of local authorities, NHS boards and voluntary organisations to support people with additional support needs who wish to study, or are currently studying at Scotland''s colleges or universities. This guidance included developing staff training and guidance; enhancing central support facilities; developing drug and alcohol policies; employing wardens or organising peer support in student residencies, and promoting awareness of stress triggers and periods of increased vulnerability.

In relation to this, the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU) was funded by the Scottish Government to develop a website to provide information and resources for college and university staff related to promoting student mental health improvement.

Projects currently in partnership with the NHS include: Sharing Practice In Mental Health Improvement between NHS Lothian and the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, looking at the mental health of students, and the Student Mental Health Group Glasgow, which is a collaborative project between the six universities in Glasgow City and NHS.

All student mental health improvement initiatives can be found at the SFEU Website, mentioned above, which was launched in 2007:

http://www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/ssmh/ssmh/case-studies-ssmh.html.

Guidance through the Fair for All Agenda, to eliminate and promote equality of opportunity for everyone, is available to help NHS staff understand and meet their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act, and to support NHS Scotland in implementing the Gender Equality Scheme Duty, which assesses progress in achieving gender equality outcomes and provides information and good practice examples of LGBT people using NHS services.

Through this overarching agenda, Fair for All “ LGBT has been mainstreamed within NHS Health Scotland, and is determining the focus to deliver accessible, high quality and sensitive services which fully meet the needs of Scotland''s LGBT population.

From July 2010, the Scottish Government has been funding the LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing to run the Demonstration Project, to provide learning and create the foundations for lasting and sustainable cultural change in relation to responding to the needs of LGBT people who experience mental health problems. The project is designed to help us learn how best to support LGBT people across Scotland, it is being guided by a Lothian based advisory group, with a wide ranging membership of stakeholders, such as NHS Lothian, Choose Life and see me, to inform its development and to encourage engagement across health, social care and equality services, communities and organisations. The projects aims to: increase access to health care and support services for LGBT people; tackle the mental health risk factors affecting LGBT people; work to promote resilience and strengthen the capacity of the LGBT community, promote the mental health and wellbeing of individuals, and provide specialist mental health input for LGBT people experiencing mental health problems.

The Scottish Government does not intend to formally respond to the Glasgow Anti-stigma Partnership report, There''s More to Me. However, we welcome the findings of this report.

We are currently supporting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Centre for Health and Wellbeing, in partnership with NHS Lothian, to conduct a project which will contribute to the understanding of LGBT communities and their mental health and wellbeing needs, and deliver specialist mental health support for LGBT people in Lothian.

The draft budget, including the £5 million for Carer Information Strategies (CIS), has to be approved by the Scottish Parliament. Subject to this approval, the £5 million will be used to support carers and young carers just as the £9 million for CIS over the three years to March 2011 is benefitting carers and young carers. I will be taking the views of NHS health boards and the national carers organisations on the use of the £5 million in 2011-12.

This arrangement is a pragmatic short-term solution to a major problem. The Transition Director''s appointment to the Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS) transition team was intended to run until the conclusion of the appointment process for the Chief Executive of SCSWIS. The Chair of SCSWIS has been appointed, an announcement on the Interim Chief Executive is imminent and we expect the Transition Director to give up that role at that time.

As indicated in the answer to question S3W-37844 on 6 December 2010, we have been providing funding of just over £60,000 a year since 2009 to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to fund the post of Scottish Government Lead Clinician on Chronic Pain. This is a part-time appointment, as is the case with all of our lead clinician posts.

The previous post holder had to resign recently due to serious illness, and we are now in the process of appointing a successor.

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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The following Special Health Boards will not retain efficiency savings on services not delivering direct patient care; NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and NHS National Services Scotland.

The recommendations of the Getting to GRIPS (Getting Relevant Information on Pain Services) with Chronic Pain in Scotland report form the basis of the current work programme of the Chronic Pain Steering Group set up by the Scottish Government Health Directorates and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

The steering group''s main focus has been on developing the Scottish integrated service model for chronic pain which is expected to:

improve prevention and management of chronic pain for people in Scotland;

improve services at all levels;

minimise the burden of pain on individuals and the community, and

promote the aims of other institutions involved in supporting pain management practice, education, research and specialty recognition, including supporting improved self management programmes.

The model is integrated with the pathway for referral into services currently being taken forward through the musculo-skeletal programme of the Adult Framework for Rehabilitation.

Representatives of the Chronic Pain Steering Group provided an update on progress with the work programme at the meeting of the Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain on 24 November 2010.

A decision on the allocations to the NHS boards for 2011-12 will be made following consideration of the NRAC target shares for 2011-12. It is planned to announce funding to the NHS boards in February 2011 following the final stage vote of the Scottish Government''s proposed 2011-12 budget by the Scottish Parliament.

The information requested is not available centrally, as NHSScotland does not generally quantify the funding attributable to any specific long-term condition. We have however been providing funding of just over £60,000 a year to fund the post of Scottish Government Lead Clinician on Chronic Pain. We also provided NHS Quality Improvement Scotland with funding of £24,000 in financial year 2009-10, to help with the administrative support it provides for the lead clinician and the Chronic Pain Steering Group.

We provided pump-priming funding of £50,000 a year for two years to help with the establishment of a chronic pain managed clinical network (MCN) in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It is now supported very effectively by the board. Our intention remains that the network should act as a demonstrator to other NHS boards of the benefits of an MCN approach to chronic pain services.

We awarded the Pain Association Scotland a three year core grant from April 2010 of £35,000 a year under the section 16B scheme of grants. In 2008-09, the association also received a one-off grant of £60,000 over two years to support the role out of its chronic pain self management programme. We also provided Fibromyalgia Friends Scotland with section 16B funding to assist with the costs associated with running support groups across Scotland, in the form of a core grant totalling £9,000 over three years from 2007-10, and a one-off project grant, totalling £2,513.