Scottish Parliament update March/April 2006

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

Waiting lists free personal care
Shona Robison (SNP – Dundee East) asked the Executive whether those local authorities operating waiting lists for free personal care are in breach of their statutory obligations.
Lewis Macdonald (Deputy Minister for Health & Community Care) whether a local authority was breaching its statutory duties in operating a waiting list would depend on the circumstances of the case. Waiting lists may be an appropriate way of managing access to services, provided that they are actively managed and that local authorities make some provision to meet the person’s needs in the short term and provide a more satisfactory solution in the longer term.

MINISTER’S QUESTION TIME

Hospital admission and people with dementia
Irene Oldfather (Lab – Cunninghame South) asked if the minister was aware that the experience of admission to hospital for elderly people with dementia is frightening and it can be dangerous, elderly people suffer a significant number of accidents and falls in hospital. Asked if he would join her in calling for NHS boards across Scotland to put in place detailed and substantial plans to deal with hospital admission and stay. Suggested that he looked at good practice in other countries, which includes admitting elderly people to hospital only when absolutely necessary, using sitter services and consulting families regularly to ensure that elderly people with dementia are treated with dignity and respect in the hospital environment.
Lewis Macdonald many of the features of care referred to are things that the Executive wish to encourage; where these already exist we wish to develop them and where they are not yet in place we wish to ensure that we achieve them. The Executive has committed itself to develop a standard for integrated care pathways for dementia services. The purpose of this is to ensure that all agencies, from primary care through social services, the voluntary sector to hospital services and care homes are aware of their particular roles, that users and their carers are consulted and that the agencies work in partnership with users and carers to deliver the most appropriate services.

Free personal care meal preparation
David McLetchie (Con – Edinburgh Pentlands) asked the Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform (Tom McCabe) whether he was aware that in many instances, involving councils all over Scotland, people have been charged for assistance with meal preparation when it should have been provided free of charge. Asked whether councils should fully refund them and if the cost of making such refunds had been estimated.
Tom McCabe I support any move to refund charges that have been levied if it is established that they have been inappropriately charged. If it is established that anyone has been inappropriately charged, redress should be sought and given.
Shona Robison (SNP – Dundee East) said that the minister would be aware that schedule 1 of the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 is explicit: the preparation of food should not be charged. Asked what discussions he had held with local authorities, half of which have been charging for meal preparation. Asked if the Executive should make it clear to all local authorities that no one should be charged for meal preparation.
Tom McCabe answered that it would be wrong of him to predetermine the outcome of discussions that are being held with COSLA by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care.

Local authority funding for elderly care
Nanette Milne (Con – North East Scotland) given the concerns about funding that many councils have expressed is the minister confident that local authorities are not delaying assessments for elderly care packages because of a lack of resources.
Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Service Reform and Parliamentary Business – George Lyon is aware that a number of local authorities are operating waiting lists for personal and nursing care. This is being pursued with the councils in question and we will work with them to help them understand and address their responsibilities for the provision of care and to ensure that older people are able to access the services to which they are entitled.
Shona Robson (SNP – Dundee East) last week Dundee City Council told the Health Committee that, as far as it is concerned, the problem is that it does not have enough money. On the one hand, the minister tells us that he has given enough money to councils and on the other hand the council tells us that it does not have enough money. In the meantime my constituents and their families are on waiting lists for free personal care. What will the minister do to resolve that?
George Lyon we have made substantial monies available to local government for the delivery of care services. In 2004 when the spending review was completed COSLA agreed with us that we had met fully the costs of the services over the spending review period. That is why we are now engaging with councils to ascertain why the position has changed.

PARLIAMENTARY MOTIONS

Funding the voluntary sector
Donald Gorrie (LD – Central Scotland) the Parliament is concerned about the funding problems faced by many voluntary organisations, including groups involved in youth work, caring, and advice and support-giving services in Central Scotland, to which the general method of public funding contributes, with its over-emphasis on funding mainly innovative projects for no longer than three years; welcomes some useful funding initiatives by the Scottish Executive and local authorities, imaginative new ways of deciding on the distribution of funding set up by the Big Lottery Fund and other grant givers, some progress towards better targeted funding of community enterprises and the social economy, and full cost recovery in project funding; believes, however, that the funding system should concentrate first on providing successful voluntary organisations with continued core funding, guaranteed so long as a group fulfils its remit of public benefit, and second on providing continuing funding for proven successful projects rather than insisting that projects have to be reinvented to claim that they are innovative, and considers that the Executive, local authorities, other public and charitable grant-giving bodies and the Big Lottery Fund should co-operate in developing policies along these lines.

This motion will be the subject of a member’s debate on Wednesday 3 May

Palliative Care for People with Chronic Progressive Conditions
Euan Robson (LD – Roxburgh & Berwickshire) the Parliament believes that palliative care should be provided on the basis of need for people living with chronic, progressive disease; is concerned that those living with non-cancer, chronic, progressive conditions can find it very difficult to access palliative care; notes that providing palliative care offers physical, emotional and psycho-social benefits to people with chronic, progressive conditions and can also reduce demands on NHS resources through, for example, limiting the number of hospital readmissions; recognises that most palliative care needs can be addressed by ensuring that allied health professionals receive training in palliative care, and considers that the Scottish Executive should establish a national forum to develop and promote education in basic palliative care skills for healthcare professionals.

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE NEWS

SE response to Care 21 Report: the future of unpaid care in Scotland
The Scottish Executive has published its formal response to the recommendations of the ‘Care 21 report: the Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland’, which outlines an agenda to improve the lives of Scotland's 600,000 carers. The report is available on the Scottish Executive website Scottish Executive website