Chamber and committees

Officials met with representatives of Mindroom to discuss their survey on 21 November 2008. During the meeting Mindroom advised that they are not publishing the evidence on which they base the claim in their Policy Agenda that one in six children in Scotland are affected by a recognised learning difficulty. The Scottish Government can therefore not comment on that claim.

Officials have advised Mindroom that they would welcome further discussions with them as their business proposals develop.

The identification of children with learning difficulties can happen at different stages of a child''s life. Therefore, a number of systems exist to identify and support these children.

Health for All Children (Hall 4) guidance was issued in 2005 and introduced a core programme of screening, surveillance and health promotion activity for every child. The universal core programme of contacts forms the basis of a holistic assessment enabling health professionals to identify the nature of any additional support required on the basis of need.

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 places duties on education authorities to ensure that the additional support needs of all children and young people are addressed. Education authorities are required to identify, meet and keep under review the additional support needs of all pupils.

Through the continuing professional development (CPD) framework, the Scottish Government fully expects all teachers to be able to recognise and know how to support pupils with additional support needs. Teachers should know where to go for specialist support and advice with regard to the educational provision for pupils to ensure that the appropriate assessments, interventions and strategies can be put in place. There is no single best approach.

Later this year the Scottish Government will publish an early years framework in partnership with COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities). Within the context of the concordat it will be for local authorities and their community planning partners to deliver the outcome that our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. It will also highlight the need for high quality pre-school and early school education provision and support.

The Scottish Government is taking a significant number of steps to help support children with dyslexia including the following:

We are developing The Early Years Framework with COSLA, which is about moving from intervention when a crisis happens towards prevention, building resilience and providing the right level of support before problems materialise. The framework will also highlight the need for high quality pre-school and early education provision and support. We are looking to publish the Early Years Framework later this year.

We are supporting the Scottish Teacher Education Committee (STEC) Action Plan “ Framework for Inclusion, a two year action plan to take forward inclusive education in Initial Teacher Education and Continuous Professional Development.

We are currently in discussions with Dyslexia Scotland to undertake work to identify and provide advice on the most effective assessment tools/techniques that would help teachers plan appropriate programmes of support for the learner.

We launched and disseminated last year, the Scottish Government funded University of Edinburgh interactive training DVD to promote dyslexia awareness in secondary schools and help facilitate the transition from primary to secondary school.

Curriculum for Excellence identifies literacy skills as a key theme across the curriculum with all teachers having a role in promoting language and literacy development; it also puts the learner at the heart of everything that we do.

Finally, I would be happy to meet with Ms Baillie to discuss this issue in more detail.

The Scottish Government is committed to making its information available to all, including disabled people. Public bodies have responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act to make reasonable adjustments to enable access to services. Under the Disability Equality Duty, they are also required to have due regard to the need to promote equality for disabled people. We take our duties under the Disability Discrimination Act and Disability Equality Duty seriously, and expect other organisations and public bodies to do so too.

We are currently providing the Scottish Accessible Information Forum (SAIF) with funding of £80,021 per year until March 2011.

This funding will allow SAIF to continue to carry through the recommendations of Enabling Information, a report on improving access and raising standards in information services for disabled people and their carers in Scotland, one of the conclusions of the Scottish Working Group on Information Services for People with Disabilities.

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The National Autistic Society run employment projects (Prospects and Into Work) to give adults with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) the opportunity to succeed in employment.

The Scottish Government provided funding for the setting up of one-stop-shops in Glasgow and Lothian for adults with high functioning autism or Asperger''s syndrome. These pilot projects have been very successful and we are now encouraging other local authority areas to develop similar advice centres. The one-stop-shops support people in a number of ways including building skills and giving advice and support on getting into employment.

Autism initiatives has been funded to co-ordinate an approach to the development of social firms specifically for people with autism spectrum disorders in Scotland. This will help them into real jobs compatible with their unique skills and support needs.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with COSLA on the development of a Framework for Supported Employment. The framework is being developed to look at how we assist more disabled people, including those with ASDs into the open labour market.

While there is no central source of data specifically on the number of accessible houses built in Scotland there is information on the number of houses built by local authorities and Registered Social Landlords. As all Scottish Government funded new build is required to comply with Housing for Varying Needs standards this provides some information on the number of new housing which is accessible.

Information on new build in Scotland can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/NewBuild.

There is a requirement for Scottish Government funded new build to comply with Housing for Varying Needs standards, which ensures the housing can continue to meet the changing needs of it occupants. This builds upon the concept of barrier free principles, which state that housing and its environment should meet the needs of almost everyone.

More information can be found in the Scottish Government''s Disability Equality Scheme which can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/22092418/0.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of carer assessments in identifying carers'' needs for support and as a gateway to accessing this support. As the member will be aware, under the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, regular and substantial carers have the right to an assessment of their ability to care, independent from any assessment of the person they are caring for. However, I am aware that at present uptake of these assessments across authorities is low.

To improve this, the Scottish Government, working with partners, has developed new National Minimum Information Standards for carer''s assessments as part of the National Outcomes Framework for Community Care. These standards should support the delivery of uniform carers assessments across local authorities. These standards focus on securing positive outcomes for carers.

Furthermore, the User Defined Service Evaluation Toolkit (UDSET) and Carer Defined Service Evaluation Toolkit (CDSET) enable staff working in health and social care to capture valuable data for planning and improving services that are personalised and appropriate to individual users and carers, respectively.

The tools described above are in the process of being adopted by partners around Scotland, and development continues in response to feedback. Early indications are that their use contributes positively to achieving good outcomes for individuals.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-18129 on 27 November 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search

The Scottish Government is committed to making its information available to all, including disabled people. We take our duties under the Disability Discrimination Act seriously, and expect other organisations to do so too.

Both the Scottish Government website (www.scotland.gov.uk) and Intranet (Saltire) aim to ensure all content meets a minimum web accessibility initiative AA rating. All official publications are made available online in both html and pdf format. In addition www.scotland.gov.uk uses Dexerit text to speech software for official publications and news releases.

We will supply Scottish Government published documents in alternative formats where appropriate or on request to increase public accessibility. These will include other languages, audio, Braille and large type formats and will include availability in electronic as well as printed formats.

We currently have no plans to review this provision.