Inclusion Scotland

Parliamentary Questions

Independent Living

June 2009

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional disabled people have been supported into independent living since April 2008, broken down by local authority.

Alex Neil: The information requested is not held centrally.

Statistics were previously collected on the number of disabled people receiving a housing support service funded through the Supporting People programme. However, local authorities indicated that housing support services were also funded from other sources, so this did not necessarily represent the total number of disabled people supported to maintain independent living.

Following the end of ring fencing of the Supporting People budget in April 2008, the Scottish Government consulted with a wide range of stakeholders on whether to continue to gather information on numbers receiving housing support.

The outcome of the consultation will be published on the Scottish Government’s website at www.scotland.gov.uk. Planned changes to the data collection to bring this better into line with the annual home care census will be discussed by the Housing Support Forum at its meeting on 23 June.

March 2009

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people with learning disabilities received direct payments in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008, broken down by local authority.

Shona Robison: The information requested is in the following table:

Number of Clients with Learning Disabilities Receiving Self-Directed Support (Direct Payment) Packages by Local Authority, 2007 and 2008

Source: Self-directed Support (Direct Payments) Survey, Scottish Government.

Note: Cells with less than five clients have been suppressed and marked "-" for disclosure purposes.

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the UK Government’s decision to pilot a scheme allowing patients with long-term conditions to access direct payments to purchase their own medical and care services, whether the Scottish Government will consider launching a similar pilot and, if not, what its reasons are for its position on this matter.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the uptake of self-directed support (SDS) as a way of giving those receiving social care choice, flexibility and control over the services they receive. We are funding three test sites (Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Highland Councils) to consider three specific interventions (bridging finance, leadership and training, and cutting red tape). Legislation already allows the inclusion of health money in a SDS package in Scotland. This enables long-term conditions to be managed holistically. Evidence suggests that there can be distinct advantages for service users receiving care in this way. The personalisation of health care is central to our approach to enabling people to live well with long-term conditions. Aside from funding work with NHS Lothian to consider how health money can be used more routinely in SDS packages, we will of course be interested in the outcomes from the UK Government pilots.

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20102 by Shona Robison on 4 February 2009, whether it considers that ending direct payments for new applicants would be consistent with the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002.

Shona Robison: Local authorities have a duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to assess the community care needs of people and decide, in the light of the assessment, whether they should arrange any services, and if so, which services. Since June 2003, local authorities have a duty to offer direct payments in lieu of council community care services to all eligible people. In light of recent concerns, I will be asking the Self-Directed Support Reference Group to review the operation of the legislation as part of their work on developing a Self-Directed Support National Strategy.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review the funding arrangements for Orkney Islands Council to enable its waiting list of direct payment applications to be eased and whether it will consider granting transitional funding in light of the council’s limited scope to make cuts in other areas to fund direct payments.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spending review 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding, including the funding for self-directed support, is provided by means of a block grant.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it to achieve agreed outcomes, and the Scottish Government will monitor performance to make sure that our shared national priorities are achieved. It is not for the Scottish Government to intervene in how local authorities organise these services. However, Orkney Islands Council and NHS Orkney are working with the Scottish Government Joint Improvement Team to look into redesigning services to support more integrated working across health and social care.

In addition, the Scottish Government is funding three local authority test sites (Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow and Highland Councils) to evaluate the effectiveness of three different interventions to increase the uptake of self-directed support, including bridging finance (investing to save).

January 2009

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that service users with learning disabilities are given appropriate support and time to develop direct payments or other forms of self-directed support as an alternative to their support services being put out to tender.

Shona Robison: Council funded local support services exist in most parts of Scotland to help service users, including those with a learning disability, to receive the support they need to access self-directed support. Officials will be undertaking visits to local authorities in 2009 to identify particular local obstacles that are preventing a more radical increase in the uptake of self-directed support, which will include consideration of the support mechanisms available to those accessing self-directed support.

Guidance published by the Scottish Procurement Directorate in August 2008 made clear that councils should have a strategy for the commissioning/procurement of social care services which recognises the need to maintain quality and continuity and addresses the concerns of service users. The Scottish Government is continuing to work with local authorities to promote best practice in the consideration of self-directed support in the context of wider commissioning strategies. The Social Work Inspection Agency is also developing self-evaluation guidance on commissioning.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that service users with learning disabilities are encouraged to take up self-directed support for the provision of their own support services.

Shona Robison: Members of a reference group on self-directed support are currently considering a draft strategy to radically increase the uptake of self-directed support in Scotland for all client groups including individuals with a learning disability. Recommendations for action will be published spring 2009. A key part of this strategy will be running test sites in three local authorities over two years to consider how well specific interventions improve uptake. This work builds on the research A Review of Self Directed Support in Scotland published in June 2008 which demonstrated the flexibility, choice, control and independence that self-directed support is able to offer individuals. In addition, there are recognised health inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities, and we are funding an NHS Lothian project to consider how to improve the use of health monies as part of a self-directed support package. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/05/30134050/0

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which regulatory body is responsible for ensuring that service users with learning disabilities are given fair and equal treatment in accessing direct payments for social work services.

Shona Robison: There is no regulatory body that considers the treatment of service users receiving direct payments. The Social Work Inspection Agency considers practice of local authorities in their delivery of direct payments in conducting performance inspections. Complaints about the practice of local authorities in their treatment of service users with learning disabilities are handled in the same way as any other complaint against the council.

November 2008

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are to develop the personalisation or self-directed support agenda.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is fully committed to the personalisation agenda, including the most radical aspect of personalisation, self-directed support.

Personalisation of services has been a component of public sector reform and is a key aspiration of the Changing Lives review of social work services. Personalisation is a theme that features in all the work being done by the five change programmes and the products to be produced by those groups over the next six months or so. This includes a supported self-evaluation guide being developed with SWIA and local authorities as well as a training toolkit being developed to support the notion of citizen leadership described by the Changing Lives User and Carer Forum.

In terms of self-directed support, a reference group is currently considering a draft strategy to radically increase the uptake of self-directed support in Scotland. A key part of this strategy will be running test sites in three local authorities to consider how well specific interventions improve uptake. This work builds on research conducted in June 2008 which demonstrated the flexibility, choice, control and independence that self-directed support is able to offer individuals. The Scottish Government will consider further guidance, explicit target setting or legislation if they prove necessary in the longer term.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what targets have been agreed with COSLA or individual local authorities to develop and rollout the personalisation or self-directed support agenda.

Nicola Sturgeon: There are no targets for self-directed support. The National Performance Framework describes the national outcomes, targets and indicators agreed with COSLA.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to monitor the development of self-directed support.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government currently collects annual statistics from Scottish local authorities on the number of people in receipt of direct payments. The term direct payments is largely historical and focused on a system of delivery of social care rather than outcomes for individuals.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding has been or will be provided to local authorities to incentivise the development of the personalisation or self-directed support agenda.

Nicola Sturgeon: Local authorities’ funding has already been agreed as part of the concordat. Following agreement with COSLA, the Scottish Government will also be funding three test sites to consider how to improve the uptake of self-directed support by building on existing local authority infrastructure.

September 2007

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the lack of explicit structures in public policy to consider independent living for disabled people is hampering efforts by it, NHS boards and local authorities to implement the ideal of independent living.

Stewart Maxwell: The public sector duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people, which came into force in December 2006, provides an opportunity for public bodies to focus on the needs of disabled people and develop work on independent living.

Other recent initiatives also support independent living such as the new national guidance on self-directed support, which was issued in July, and tasks local authorities with developing local infrastructures in order to increase uptake.

However, the Scottish Government recognises the specific references to independent living in work carried out by the Disability Rights Commission and by the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee and is currently considering what further steps need to be taken to advance independent living in Scotland and we will announce our plans later in the year.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether current legislation properly reflects its commitment to independent living and, if not, what steps it intends to take to rectify this.

Stewart Maxwell: A number of pieces of relevant legislation relating to independent living, including employment and benefits legislation and anti-discrimination legislation, is reserved to Westminster. In Scotland, the Scottish Government is currently considering what steps need to be taken to advance independent living and we will announce our plans later in the year.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will establish an independent living task force to consider properly how independent living concerns can be fully integrated into public policy.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government recognises the specific references to independent living in work carried out by the Disability Rights Commission and by the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee and is currently considering what further steps need to be taken to advance independent living in Scotland and we will announce our plans later in the year.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering improvements to the legislative rights of disabled people so that they receive essential services, in order to make independent living a realisable goal for them.

Stewart Maxwell: Some legislative rights, for example, those relating to employment and benefits, are contained in legislation reserved to Westminster.  In the Scottish context, Scottish ministers are considering what steps need to be taken to advance independent living in Scotland and we will announce our plans later in the year.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive
whether it is planning to improve current levels of consultation with disabled persons’ groups when making future decisions that shape relevant policy areas.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government is committed to consultation and engagement with disabled people. We currently fund a number of national disability led organisations to assist us with this. We regard this as an important feature of our work and will want to continue to provide support.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will help to address income inequality between disabled and non-disabled people.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government is committed to creating a fairer, wealthier Scotland and will work towards this end through delivery of its five strategic objectives and overarching purpose.

It will help to address income inequality between disabled and non-disabled people through the provision of a number of policies and programmes, from the promotion of disability equality to the Workforce Plus employability framework, which seeks to maximize opportunities to access good quality sustainable employment for the most disadvantaged in relation to the labour market, including disabled people.