Chamber and committees

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I wrote to Chairs of NHS boards on 8 September 2009 informing them that I had asked Infertility Network Scotland to work directly with health boards to ensure that the voices of patients are heard at a local level in the planning of infertility services in Scotland, and to help progress with the provision of an equitable service throughout Scotland.

A copy of the letter and attachment has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) (Bib. number 49679).

The issue of charging for non-personal care services is addressed in legislation. Under Section 87 (1A) of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, a local authority may charge for certain adult non-residential and domiciliary services it provides. Therefore, this was also the case under the previous administration. It is for local authorities to decide their charging policies for these non-personal care services, in keeping with local accountability. However, the legislation requires that any charges levied must be reasonable and should not be more than appears to be reasonably practicable for the recipient to pay, taking account of his or her other financial commitments. Guidance issued by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in April 2009 recommends a consistent framework for charging and encourages councils to demonstrate that they are following best practice.

The Carers Strategy for Scotland (including a lift-out section on young carers) is being developed in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). As such, and in line with the principles of our concordat with local government, it needs to be approved by COSLA. This should help ensure implementation at local level, as COSLA needs to be satisfied that it will be implementable. There is also representation from some health boards on the steering groups, helping to inform development of the strategy. The strategy will include high-level messages about the benefits of carer support, supported by evidence and set within the context of outcomes.

It is not the purpose of single outcome agreements (SOAs) to provide a comprehensive list of outcomes across all services. The SOAs reflect the priorities and agreed outcomes for each Community Planning Partnership, and include relevant supporting indicators and targets. Copies of all 32 SOAs, which were agreed with Community Planning Partnerships on 1 June 2009, can be obtained via the Improvement Service website by following this link:

http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/single-outcome-agreements/.

This information is not yet available.

As of 18 November 2009, NHS Scotland have received just under 720,000 doses of Pandemrix vaccine “ around 55% of the total required for the 1.3 million priority groups as announced on 13 August. The majority of this vaccine has been distributed to GP practices.

Vaccine deliveries to GP practices began from 26 October 2009, and all GP practices now have a supply of vaccine to enable vaccination of patients who are in the priority groups. GP practices have been prioritising initial supplies with those in the clinical at-risk groups, who are pre-school and school age children, pregnant women and those deemed to be at highest risk on the basis of their professional and clinical judgement.

Uptake data will begin to be published soon.

The information is provided in the following table:

Local Authority	Number of Unpaid Carers
Aberdeen City	25,111
Aberdeenshire	29,036
Angus	12,133
Argyll and Bute	10,790
Clackmannanshire	8,690
Dumfries and Galloway	22,216
Dundee City	14,027
East Ayrshire	21,844
East Dunbartonshire	12,862
East Lothian	13,095
East Renfrewshire	9,772
Edinburgh City	47,404
Eilean Siar	2,933
Falkirk	21,929
Fife	49,522
Glasgow City	66,371
Highland	29,523
Inverclyde	9,892
Midlothian	14,192
Moray	11,628
North Ayrshire	18,921
North Lanarkshire	48,957
Orkney Islands	1,989
Perth and Kinross	19,082
Renfrewshire	24,087
Scottish Borders	12,502
Shetland Islands	2,246
South Ayrshire	15,283
South Lanarkshire	38,023
Stirling	12,050
West Dunbartonshire	13,132
West Lothian	18,086
All Scotland	657,328

Source: Scottish Household Survey, 2007-08.

A Short Breaks Working Group with representation from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), local authorities and carers'' organisations is considering this issue.

The Carers Strategy for Scotland, to be published in the first half of 2010, will include a chapter on short breaks.

The Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 gave ministers powers to regulate charges for social care. However, the Scottish Government made clear at the time that it would support self-regulation by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) if that achieved consistency. It also made a commitment to hold these powers in reserve until implementation of COSLA''s guidance on charging was evaluated. In its Stage 1 Report on the Bill, the Health and Community Care Committee of the Scottish Parliament endorsed the approach of COSLA in preparing the guidance, and the reserve powers being taken by ministers.

The evaluation of the guidance began in 2004, and revised guidance was issued in 2006. Key stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, were involved in the consultation process. COSLA issued further updated guidance in April 2009 recommending a consistent framework for charging and encouraging councils to demonstrate that they are following best practice.

We continue to support the aim of the COSLA guidance to achieve consistency, whilst allowing for local authority discretion in ensuring that charges are reasonable for each individual client.

This information depends on deliveries from the manufacturers.

As announced on 21 October 2009, there will be a phased introduction as vaccine supplies become available from the manufacturers. Supplies are being sent to GP practices on a weekly basis to enable them to vaccinate the majority of the clinical at-risk groups by Christmas 2009.

Based on manufactures'' delivery schedules, we are able to confirm delivery schedules to GP practices on a weekly basis only.

NHS Scotland have now received just under 550,000 doses of Pandemrix vaccine “ around 40% of the total required for the 1.3 million priority groups as announced on 13 August 2009.