Chamber and committees

Following discussions with the Thalidomide Trust the Scottish Government has committed £3.4 million to assist the survivors of Thalidomide. This funding is proportionate to the funding committed by the UK, Welsh and Irish Governments, and is based on the 55 thalidomiders living in Scotland.

In response to concerns about the sustainability and fairness of current and future care for older people in the face of financial and demographic pressures, a major work programme “ Reshaping Care for Older People “ is being taken forward in partnership with NHS Scotland and COSLA through the Ministerial Strategic Group on Health and Community Care.

The programme aspires to develop practical ideas for change that are sufficiently radical to meet the changing needs of Scotland''s population by enabling people to stay at home or in a homely setting, with maximum independence, for as long as possible. A key aim is to ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to enable service providers to respond effectively to future demand for services. An Integrated Resource Framework is also being developed and tested across four sites in Scotland, from which evidence is being gathered about how resources can be used most effectively across health and social care.

So far the programme has focussed on discussion with colleagues with a professional and clinical interest in delivering services for older people. The emerging proposals are moving towards more anticipatory and preventative approaches, more rehabilitation, more re-ablement, and a greater emphasis on self-care and supported self care, with consequential support for unpaid carers and volunteers.

As part of a wider engagement process and to further analyse and develop emerging proposals, the programme will from March 2010 until the summer seek views from the public and from a wider range of stakeholders including patients, service users and service providers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31541 on 3 March 2010. 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.

Given the complexity of social care procurement, it is necessary to consider the desirability of national contracts and pricing frameworks on a case-by-case basis. The Scottish Government, COSLA and Scotland Excel (the procurement Centre of Expertise for local authorities) are working together to explore best practice in relation to social care contracts and pricing frameworks. Scotland Excel is currently consulting local authorities on the opportunities for joint commissioning of services.

Local authorities have a duty to commission community care services. They may provide these services themselves directly or they may commission care services in line with their local commissioning strategy. Where they commission, or provide directly, services of a type which is regulated under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, those services are required to be registered with the Care Commission. The commission inspects all registered services against the relevant statutory provisions and the National Care Standards in order to ensure that people using care services receive good quality care.

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on draft guidance on social care procurement which provides a framework and defines a set of guiding principles for social care procurement activity. The draft guidance underlines the need for local authorities to be realistic in specifying requirements and outcomes which can be delivered within available budgets. It also states that local authorities must take account of the need for a skilled and competent workforce.

The consultation documents can be accessed on the Scottish Government''s website:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/01/13125045/0.

The consultation period ends on 5 April 2010.

Local authorities have a duty to provide or commission community care services in line with their local commissioning strategy. Accountability for decisions taken in the context of commissioning services therefore rests with local authorities as the commissioning organisations.

Core participants can already be represented at fatal accident inquiries (FAI) and bereaved families may receive legal aid if they cannot afford to pay for that representation.

The purpose of a fatal accident inquiry is to investigate the circumstances of death in the public interest - to try to avoid similar incidents in future.

Procurators fiscal have a public duty to fulfil at the inquiry, including leading evidence to establish the cause of death. The fiscal will meet with the family to discuss the conduct of the FAI. They will inform the family as to the witnesses and evidence they intend to produce and what line of questioning they intend to pursue. Often the fiscal will ask the family if there are any particular questions or issues that they wish raised.

In some circumstances, however, the families may have questions that the fiscal does not feel it would be appropriate to ask in the public interest. Families may wish to ask questions intended to establish whether there are grounds for civil proceedings following the fatal accident inquiry. In such cases the families may instruct their own legal representative.

If the family cannot afford to pay for legal representation, they may be eligible to receive legal aid. The Scottish Legal Aid Board can make legal aid available where a person entitled to be represented at a fatal accident inquiry can show that they have concerns which the procurator fiscal is not going to raise at the Inquiry.

Any application for legal aid will be subject to the usual statutory tests of financial eligibility, probable cause and reasonableness, that is, whether it is reasonable in the particular circumstances of the case that legal aid should be provided.

Lord Cullen has recommended that relatives of the deceased should not have to justify the reasonableness of the granting of legal aid for their representation at the FAI and that Scottish Ministers should consider increasing the limit for legal aid in FAIs and the extent to which legal aid is available within that limit. Scottish Ministers will consider this proposal in conjunction with the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Lord Cullen''s Report on his Review of the Fatal Accident Inquiry Legislation, including his recommendations, may be viewed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/FAIreview. There are some 35 recommendations, many of which are in several parts.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31678 on 3 March 2010. 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.