Alex Cole-Hamilton

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the establishment of a National Early Intervention in Psychosis Improvement Network (EIPIN), whether it plans to define what “early” means in relation to psychosis consistently across all NHS boards.

Answer · Clare Haughey: Early intervention is defined as the commencement of any necessary treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis. The Scottish Government’s Quality Indicator profile includes a measure of the percentage of first presentation psychosis patients that start SIGN…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported long waiting times for mental health services across Scotland, on what basis it decided to allocate £390,000 to help people with psychosis.

Answer · Clare Haughey: Our commitment to improving Early Intervention Psychosis (EIP) services is reflected in Action 26 of the Mental Health Strategy, as well as in the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce Delivery Plan. The allocation of additional funding reflects…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the publication of its report, Our Vision to Improve Early Intervention in Psychosis in Scotland, whether it will provide further explanation of what is meant in the report by an "in-depth piece of diagnostic work is taking place with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Hig…

Answer · Clare Haughey: Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) completed a diagnostic exercise with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s ESTEEM service (in January 2019) and NHS Highland’s Argyle and Bute Mental Health team (in February 2019). The aim of the exercise was to collect data t…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the £100,000 allocated to Gypsy/Traveller children in 2019-20, as outlined in its "Every child, every chance: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022", has been used for, and what the outcomes have been.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: When we published ‘Every Child, Every Chance: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2018-2022’ we made a commitment to invest £0.5m in flexible family learning with Gypsy/Traveller families over the lifetime of the Plan (2018-2020). This will build on addition…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication in 2018 of an equalities impact assessment of its policy to increase the number of Scotland-domiciled/EU students studying medicine at Scottish universities, whether it will provide further details on the results for the group “other sexual orientations".

Answer · Richard Lochhead: I refer the member to Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Bib number: 60845

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to promote access to medical courses to Scottish-domiciled young people.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government is taking a number of measures to ensure Scottish domiciled students from all sectors of society can access medical courses. By 2021 overall medical undergraduate numbers will have increased by 190 places (or 22%) over 2016 levels. Thi…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Northern Ireland reportedly having nearly double the percentage of home-domiciled students than Scotland, 89.0% against 52.4%, what steps it is taking to ensure that the percentage of Scottish-domiciled student equals that of the rest of the UK.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data shows that in 2017-18, 53.8% of full-time first degree medical enrolments at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were Scottish domiciled. At Northern Irish HEIs, 66.5% of full-time first degree medic…

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a four-year health MOT pilot for people over 40, and, if so, how much it will cost.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce a four-year health MOT pilot for people over 40.

2 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 50,000 affordable homes that it has committed to building in the current parliamentary session have started construction.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: Official published statistics for the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) show that for the three year period to 31st March 2019, there were a total of 30,749 homes recorded as affordable housing starts. The official statistics can be found using the f…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of social landlords currently meet its minimum site standards for Gypsy/Travellers, broken down by local authority.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: 12 out of 18 (67%) social landlords report that they have met the minimum site standards for Gypsy/Traveller sites. The following table provides a breakdown by local authority/Registered Social Landlord. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) continues to monit…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Child Poverty Delivery Fund will be launched, and how it will tackle inequality in BAME communities.

Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan is backed by the £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund, as announced in Programme for Government 2017-18. Current investment is set out within the first annual progress report published in June 2019. The Fund is sup…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reference on page 50 of the Race Equality Action Plan - Year 1 highlight report to "the £775,000 referenced above in relation to Action 7", and this not being detailed in the report, whether it will provide details of Action 7 and its funding.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: The Scottish Government is providing an additional £775,000 to strengthen the provision of education to Gypsy/Traveller families over the period 2018-2022. £275,000 of this was awarded to STEP in 2018-19 to support, share and systematise best practice in deli…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the five projects that received part of the £2 million of supplementary funding in 2017 highlighted in its Race Equality Action Plan, how much funding each project received that went directly to BAME communities.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: 17 SGBs supported activities to accelerate and expand reach with the inactive and under-represented across multiple groups. This included young people, women and girls, older people, disabled people, those living in deprived areas, ethnic minorities communiti…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding PATH Scotland has received in each of the last three years, and how this funding supports the increasing number of minority ethnic people in Scotland.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: PATH Scotland has received funding of £35k for each of the years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 through the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund. This funding supports the Developing Management and Leadership Skills (DMLS) in Public Life, Education and Employme…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it does not record data on ethnicity in early learning and childcare statistics, and whether it plans to start recording such data.

Answer · Maree Todd: The current Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) census is collected annually from centres delivering funded ELC in September. It was designed to capture the number of funded registrations with ELC providers, along with some additional breakdowns such as stage …

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in the Race Equality Action Plan - Year 1 highlight report, by what date the National Development Officer is expected to take up post, and what the post entails.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: The Scottish Government has provided funding for a new Gypsy/Traveller National Development Officer at STEP to help improve educational experiences and outcomes for Gypsy/Travellers. Working closely with the Traveller Education Network, the post holder will s…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which three projects have been funded through the £2.7 million announced in the Race Equality Action Plan - Year 1 highlight report, and how much of this was directed towards BAME communities.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: To date, 26 projects are being supported through the Screening Inequalities Fund. This includes a number of activities specifically tackling inequalities of access to cancer screening programmes within BAME communities. Examples of this work include the creat…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its Race Equality Action Plan, what the additional £275,000 of funding in 2018-19 is in addition to, and what the funding has been used for.

Answer · Christina McKelvie: The Scottish Government already provides funding of £113,000 per year (2017-2020) to the Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP) to support the delivery of education to children and young people from travelling cultures. In 2018-19 we awarded STEP addit…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Chronic Pain Specialty Group's Design Workshop Report June 2019, how it plans to make information about chronic pain self-management widely (a) accessible and (b) used.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24115 on 18 July 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/2…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Chronic Pain Specialty Group's Design Workshop Report June 2019, how it will focus on the future of changing chronic pain services to forecast staffing, service provision, and consequent outcomes.  

Answer · Jeane Freeman: Provision of good quality data and measurement of Chronic Pain services and outcomes for those who use the services is recognised as being essential to understand, forecast and plan future staffing, service provision and improve outcomes for patients. A Heal…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Chronic Pain Specialty Group's Design Workshop Report June 2019, how it can provide better support for people living with chronic pain so that they can inform themselves of, take ownership of, and self-manage their condition.

Answer · Jeane Freeman: The National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain endorsed the Report in its entirety at their meeting on 26th June 2019. At the same meeting, it was agreed to establish a Chronic Pain Patient Reference Group to help ensure that a wide representation of the li…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of figures from the Scottish House Condition Survey stating that 1.3 million homes may not be wind and watertight, what measures it will put in place to ensure that buildings are.

Answer · Kevin Stewart: The Scottish House Condition Survey Key Findings Report 2017 estimated that 50% of homes in Scotland have some disrepair to critical elements of the house, equivalent to around 1.2 million homes. The presence of disrepair to critical elements does not mean th…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance exists regarding the installation of netting around hedgerows, trees and other wildlife to protect nesting birds.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government is not aware of any specific guidance covering the installation of netting around hedgerows, trees and other wildlife. There is currently no legislation that specifically prevents the installation of netting around hedgerows or trees.…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of there being a workforce of fully trained counsellors and psychotherapists available via the accredited registers programme, how it will fund the training of new mental health practitioners.

Answer · Clare Haughey: The Scottish Government is investing £54 million over 4 years (2016-2020) to support NHS Boards to improve access to services and develop the workforce. This includes £24.6 million to NHS Education for Scotland for investment to enhance supply and training of…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider contacting the Professional Standards Authority to learn how to best make use of the thousands of counsellors and psychotherapists available via the accredited registers programme.

Answer · Clare Haughey: The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport met the Chair and Chief Executive of the Professional Standards Authority on Tuesday 6 November 2018 and discussed the programme at that time. The Authority’s acknowledged expertise lies in the field of regulatory a…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that recipients of Carer’s Allowance Supplement are fully informed regarding when they will receive their payments.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland announced at the end of last year that Carer’ Allowance Supplement payments would be made in June and December 2019. It was confirmed on the 5 June that the majority of carers will get their June payment on 24 June. This information w…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase the Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government will uprate Carer’s Allowance Supplement every year in line with inflation. Carer’s Allowance Supplement increased by 2.4% between 2018-19 and 2019-20.    

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will put in place extra support for carers who cannot access support services for carers but wish to.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 gives every carer a right to an adult carer support plan or young carer statement. This is a personalised plan, focusing on what matters to the individual carer. If the carer has eligible needs in their plan which meet the local…

1 Jul 2019 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that fairness is built into the entitlement for the Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The eligibility for Carers Allowance Supplement is based on the eligibility for Carer’s Allowance. All those who receive Carer’s Allowance on the qualifying date will be automatically eligible for Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

24 Jun 2019 · Topical Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will reduce the reported long waits for inpatient and day-case dental treatment.