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Written Answers Monday 23 July 2012 SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Governance and Communities Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Executive how it supports participation in equestrian sports. (S4W-08357) Shona Robison: The Scottish Government provides funding to sport through its Grant in Aid to sportscotland. For the calendar year 2012, sportscotland will provide £154,890 in support to Horse Scotland, the governing body for equestrianism in Scotland, to help develop the sport. Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it will invest in hockey over the next spending review period and in which areas of the country. (S4W-08358) Shona Robison: The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Sportscotland, as the national agency for sport and the lead agency for the development of sport in Scotland, provides financial investment to Scottish Hockey in order to deliver ministerial priorities. I have therefore asked Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland to write to you separately with details of the investment provided to Scottish Hockey. Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Executive under what powers a retired senior civil servant has been invited to investigate the governance of Scottish Gymnastics and what the terms of the inquiry are. (S4W-08498) Shona Robison: Sportscotland is accountable for the major investment of public funding into Scottish governing bodies, including the Scottish Gymnastics Association (SGA). Following receipt of certain serious allegations, sportscotland has instigated an independent review of the Association. Sportscotland’s authority to appoint such an independent reviewer emanates from its Royal Charter. Provision 2(dd) stipulates that: In furtherance of its objects the council shall have the following powers: to encourage and support the adoption of the highest ethical standards among persons or teams from Scotland participating in sport and physical recreation. The remit of the independent review, as clearly outlined to the SGA, is as follows: investigation into the allegations relating to the fair treatment of SGA staff, and investigation into the allegations that the SGA has failed to comply with the application of its internal disciplinary and child protection policies. I have asked Stewart Harris, Chief Executive of sportscotland, to write to you with further details of the independent review. Health and Social Care Siobhan McMahon (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding (a) it and (b) the NHS has given to organisations to settle employment tribunals, broken down by organisation. (S4W-08346) Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government does not provide specific funding to NHS boards to settle employment tribunals. The NHSScotland Central Legal Office, part of NHS National Services Scotland, provides legal support to boards in relation to litigation, at cost to individual NHS boards. Boards, as individual employers, will determine whether or not to settle employment tribunals, based on legal advice received, and will be expected to cover these costs from their own budgets. No specific funding is made available for this purpose. Margaret McCulloch (Central Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the recent backlog in the coding of clinical episodes by NHS Lanarkshire will have on the statistics that are published by the Information Services Division. (S4W-08354) Nicola Sturgeon: Clinical coding is carried out for the following national returns: SMR00 (Outpatients), SMR01 (Acute Inpatient and Day Cases), SMR01_1E (Geriatric Long Stay), SMR02 (Maternity Inpatients and Day Cases) and SMR04 (Mental Health Inpatients and Day Cases). Information Services Division (ISD) routinely monitors the submission of SMR data from all boards; this includes regular meetings to discuss data submission problems and providing support to help resolve them. For NHS Lanarkshire, SMR data is complete for all the above data sets to March 2012 except for SMR02 data. SMR02 data is complete to January 2011, with incomplete data for February and March 2011. There is currently no data on file from April 2011 onwards. The delay in submission has been due to problems experienced by NHS Lanarkshire following the implementation of their new Patient Management System – TrakCare. The incomplete SMR02 data will impact on one annual publication which is due to be published in August 2012: Births in Scottish Hospitals, year ending 31 March 2011. ISD is currently working with Lanarkshire to resolve the outstanding data submission issues to meet a rescheduled publication date of November 2012. NHS Lanarkshire is not the only board with incomplete SMR submissions delaying the Births in Scottish Hospitals publication. ISD is working with other boards that are experiencing problems following the implementation of TrakCare. Information on the completeness of SMR data nationally is available at the following ISD webpage. http://www.isdscotland.org/Products-and-Services/Hospital-Records-Data-Monitoring/SMR- Completeness/. Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure the adoption of the dementia designs in the guide published by the University of Stirling Dementia Services Development Centre for patients with dementia in general hospitals and emergency departments. (S4W-08393) Nicola Sturgeon: The Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland (2011) state that NHS boards will ensure that there is regular audit of the physical environment in these settings for people with dementia and action any deficits; and the standards signpost services to the Design for People with Dementia: Audit Tool (2008), produced by The Dementia Services Development Centre at The University of Stirling in collaboration with Health Facilities Scotland. NHS boards will also want to consider using any new design tools as appropriate to help them in meeting this standard. The Chief Nursing Officer continues a programme of improvement activity into the care of all older people and people with dementia at all ages in acute general hospitals, in partnership with NHS boards and others, including people with dementia and their families with experience of care in these settings. This is informed by a holistic approach to improving the care experience of people with dementia in hospital environments, with attention to ensuring an effective, safe and personalised caring environment. This activity is being supported by the training of 300 Dementia Champions drawn from acute general hospital and associated care setting by 2013 to lead improvements in care at the frontline, and by the appointment of a specialist dementia nurse consultant to each board to advise on and help implement service change. Learning and Justice Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (Scottish National Party): To ask the Scottish Executive how it encourages pupils to consider studying undergraduate courses in science. (S4W-08356) Alasdair Allan: Education in Science, Technologies, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects is a priority for this government, as these areas are key drivers of Scotland’s future economic prosperity. Under Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), teachers have professional autonomy to ensure pupils’ learning experiences are tailored to meet their individual needs and interests. Entries for Highers and Advanced Highers in science subjects have increased since 2009, with pass rates remaining high. The examination results for 2011 show that science subjects represent three of the top five subjects taken at Higher. The recent independent report from the Science and Engineering Education Advisory Group (SEEAG) included recommendations aimed at ensuring pupils continue to have opportunities to experience high-quality learning in the sciences, and have access to appropriate information about pathways into STEM-related further learning and careers. The Scottish Government intends to publish a response to the SEEAG report later in the summer. Higher Education and industry work closely together to identify future skills needs for Scotland. Over the next three years the Scottish Funding Council will increase by 1,200 the number of funded places available at universities for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. These are considered to be priority growth areas over coming years, particularly with the growth of new clean energy sectors. Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-07769 by Kenny MacAskill on 26 June 2012, when it will lay before the Parliament the section 14 order, and for what reason this was not carried out on 25 June 2012, as had been indicated by Mr MacAskill in his letter of 24 May 2012 to the Convener of the Justice Committee. (S4W-08389) Kenny MacAskill: The draft section 14 Order under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 will be laid in the Parliament in September. In shaping our proposals, the Scottish Government recognise the value of contributions from a wide range of individuals and organisations. That is why, to build on engagement with stakeholders, we postponed laying the draft Parliamentary Order to September. This will not change the proposed period for the formal consultation which will run from September to the end of November.
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