Tag: Scottish Parliament

Care home testing must increase, say Scottish Tories

SNP Ministers must step up their efforts and get on top of testing care home staff and residents in NHS Lothian.

2,665 care home staff and 2,460 care home residents have been tested cumulatively since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, up to the 7th June.

This is despite SNP Health Secretary Jeane Freeman promising last month that every care home worker would be routinely tested.

The Scottish Conservatives challenged SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the matter at First Minister’s Questions where Nicola Sturgeon revealed only a fifth of care home staff had been routinely tested across the country.

Table 5 – Number of Tests – Care Home Staff and Residents
             
Number of Tests
Week Commencing 1 June Cumulative total to 7 June
NHS Board Staff Residents Staff Residents
Ayrshire and Arran                67                  30                689              579
Borders                22                  13                343              193
Dumfries & Galloway                  4                    7                  75              159
Fife             178                  30                763              372
Forth Valley             876               565            2,176           1,858
Grampian             115               167            1,709           1,668
Greater Glasgow & Clyde                17               678                920           5,709
Highland                47                  40                258              265
Lanarkshire                43               119                586              956
Lothian             566               327            2,665           2,460
Orkney                  6                    5                  20                 15
Shetland                  8                    9                  74                 52
Tayside             264               139                876              741
Western Isles                30                    4                  41                 22
Scotland          2,243            2,133          11,195        15,049

Scottish Government statistics reveal that across Scotland’s 14 health boards, only 18,110 care home staff have been tested out of an estimated 50,000 across the country – NHS Border said it didn’t have the capacity to run care home tests.

Lothian MSP Miles Briggs has repeatedly raised concerns over the level of testing in care homes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month it was revealed that over 900 hospital patients were discharged to care homes with being tested for Covid-19.

The Scottish Conservatives are calling for all for SNP Ministers to set a deadline for when all care home staff will be routinely tested.

Miles Briggs, who is the Conservative health spokesperson, said: “There has simply not been enough testing carried out in care homes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has had disastrous consequences.

“SNP Ministers have been repeatedly told that testing is crucial for reducing the spread of Covid-19, but have slow to implement testing in care homes.

“In Edinburgh and the Lothians there have only been 2,665 tests carried out on care home staff, no where near as many as are necessary.

“Nicola Sturgeon and SNP Ministers must set a firm deadline as to when all care home staff will be tested.”

 

Putting voters first? Scottish elections to be held every FIVE years

 

Scottish Parliamentary and local election terms will be extended from four to five years in line with the UK Parliament and other devolved legislatures under changes approved by MSPs.

The Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill, which has now passed its final stage in the Scottish Parliament, increases the election cycle from the current four-year term.

The legislation also enables all 14-year-olds to register ahead of attaining voting age, and bans people from voting in more than one area in local elections – mirroring the law for Scottish and UK Parliament elections.

The legislation gives the Scottish Parliament oversight of the work of the Electoral Commission on Scottish elections for the first time. In order to focus on removing barriers to voting for disabled people, the Commission will report on the assistance provided to disabled people at Scottish elections.

Minister for Parliamentary Business Graeme Dey said: “From the outset, this Bill has been focused on ensuring robust electoral processes, building on the progress of previous legislation, and putting the voter first.

“The integrity and smooth functioning of elections is a cornerstone of any democracy, and these reforms will deliver a real difference.

“We consulted extensively on whether to change election terms for Parliament and local government elections and the majority were in favour of five-year terms. This will reduce voter fatigue and avoid clashes between elections.

“Longer terms provide the opportunity to build upon and develop expertise in Government and Parliament. They should – depending on possible early UK general elections being called – avoid clashes with UK elections.

“We are not alone in making this change – the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Parliament both moved to five-year terms in 2014.”

Politicians vote to give themselves an extra year … there’s a shock!

MSPs to quiz Health Secretary on coronavirus in care homes

The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee is to question the Cabinet Secretary for Health Jeane Freeman on the impact of coronavirus on Scotland’s care homes.

Recent figures show more than half of Scotland’s Covid-19 deaths have taken place in care homes and Ms Freeman will be quizzed on the various issues faced by the care home sector.

Ahead of the meeting, Lewis Macdonald MSP, Health and Sport Committee Convener, said: “The shocking impact of coronavirus on Scotland’s care homes has been well documented with over half of Scotland’s deaths taking place in this setting.

“Some have felt that the NHS was prioritised over care homes at the outset of this pandemic and we are keen to examine whether this was the case.

“We also know that access to adequate PPE and lack of testing have impacted on care homes and we want to investigate these issues further.

“We are also seeking to find out how prepared care homes were for this crisis, what support the Government provided to them and how they will be supported to ensure that if there is a second wave of this deadly virus, care homes are not exposed again.”

The Committee’s meeting takes place this morning (Thursday 4th June) at 9.30am and will be broadcast live on www.scottishparliament.tv .

MSPs call for significant changes to debt solution

Holyrood’s Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee has published a report on protected trust deeds citing that changes are needed to make the debt solution more effective in supporting people who are in debt.

A protected trust deed is one of three statutory debt solutions in Scotland. It involves a debtor’s assets being managed by an insolvency practitioner for the benefit of the creditors for a four-year period. During this time, part of the debtor’s income is paid to the insolvency practitioner.

Last year around 8,000 people entered a protected trust deed, 150,000 people sought debt advice and, beyond that 600,000 adults are considered to be over-indebted in Scotland.

Amongst its calls within the report, the Committee asked for changes to the way fees are charged in protected trust deeds. The current rules can see debtors making contributions but not reducing their overall debt levels for at least the first two years.

Committee Convener Michelle Ballantyne MSP said: “Now more than ever people’s finances will be feeling the strain, and some will be contemplating seeking help to clear their debts.

“A debt solution should work in reducing that person’s debt. We heard evidence which showed that fees were being frontloaded resulting in the overall debt not lowering despite payments being made. This needs to change.

“The Committee welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to conduct an overarching debt review. However, it is incredibly important that the Scottish Government listen to the Committees recommendations to ensure that protected trust deeds act as an effective debt solution and debtors are safeguarded from the potential harm that can be caused when things go wrong.”

The Committee also heard evidence that online advertising and social media campaigns can target people in debt, offering a solution which is not always suitable for their circumstances.

Michelle Ballantyne MSP added: “People in debt must receive the right help and advice and not choose a solution based purely on what they saw on social media that day.

“The Committee recommends tighter regulations on online advertising and believes that free independent money advice would help ensure that people make the decision right for them.”

There are three statutory debt solutions in Scotland:

Bankruptcy – All of the debtor’s assets are managed by a trustee for the benefit of creditors for a four-year period. Contributions from income will also be required, where appropriate. Almost all outstanding debts are written off at the end of the four-year period, allowing the debtor to become debt free.

Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme – Debtors make payments over an extended period of time to pay off their debts. It can last for any “reasonable” time period, but the average is around seven years. Debts are not written off, so the scheme is only available to those who can repay in full over the length of the scheme.

Protected Trust Deed – As with bankruptcy, a debtor’s assets are managed by a trustee for the benefit of creditors for a four-year period. Contributions from income will have to be sufficient to pay the trustee’s fee and provide a return to creditors. Protected Trust Deeds are seen as offering more flexibility than bankruptcy.

Informal debt solutions – Most debtors negotiate informally with their creditors to make lower repayments. These arrangements can be unstable, and do not prevent creditors from taking action to enforce their debts if they think they should be paid more.

The published report can be found here.

Are you struggling to manage debt? Free, independent advice is available. Granton Information Centre’s office on West Granton Road is currently closed to the public, but they at still here to support you.

If you have money worries, employment concerns or housing issues, or if you are claiming benefits for the first time and find it all very complicated, contact Granton Information Centre and speak to an adviser:

Telephone 0131 552 0458 or 0131 551 2459

Email info@gic.org.uk

Granton Information Centre: here to help.

Extra funding to support tenants as Holyrood backs emergency measures

The Scottish Parliament has unanimously supported new emergency measures to help people in Scotland get through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.

The Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Bill, now passed by Parliament, gives powers to Scottish Ministers to temporarily intervene and manage care home services where there is a serious risk to the life, health or wellbeing of any person in that home for any reason connected with COVID-19.

The Bill also includes an additional £19.2 million investment in the Carer’s Allowance Supplement, the introduction of notice to leave periods for students in purpose-built student accommodation, and additional protections for those facing bankruptcy.

During the debate, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart has also confirmed an additional £5 million will be made available to local authorities through Discretionary Housing Payments, to support tenants who are now under severe financial pressures (see below).

There are also legislative changes in areas including non-domestic rates relief, proceeds of crime and the wider operation of Scotland’s criminal justice system. The Bill also ensures that COVID-19 grant funding goes to those companies that pay their fair share of tax by excluding those who seek to minimise their tax arrangements to the detriment of the wider economy.

Constitution Secretary Michael Russell said: “Scotland remains in an unprecedented situation. This legislation provides time-limited measures that will further strengthen our ability to prioritise work tackling the coronavirus pandemic, and support those in Scotland facing real hardship as a result.

“Whether it is taking action to safeguard the population’s health such as the measures relating to care homes, helping people in debt or students with accommodation costs,  we will continue to do all we can to help Scotland get through this most testing of times.

“In a spirit of cooperation and consensus we have worked across parliament and with all parties as much as possible as we take these important steps to tackle the impact of this ongoing crisis.”

£5 million for Discretionary Housing Payments

Housing Minister Kevin Stewart has announced £5 million additional investment to support tenants under financial pressure during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The extra funding, announced during the Stage 3 debate of the emergency Coronavirus (2nd) (Scotland) Bill, will go to local authorities to provide support to tenants through the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) scheme. This takes the total funding from the Scottish Government for DHPs to almost £16 million – as well as £60 million funding budgeted to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax.

Mr Stewart said: “We all know that the wider impacts of Covid-19 are increasing pressures on households and leading to greater financial hardship, including paying rent.

“Many more people will now be on benefits for the first time and be subject to the UK Government’s benefit cap while others will have seen their household income decrease substantially and  may be struggling to pay their rent.

“We have been looking closely at how to support people during the crisis and I am pleased to announce that we are increasing the amount we have made available for other DHPs – those that are available outside of our full mitigation of the bedroom tax – by a further £5 million to almost £16 million. This will support tenants who are now under severe financial pressures and where the UK welfare state is not providing the safety net it should.”

The funding announced today takes to £77.1 million the amount of Scottish Government Discretionary Housing Payment fund to support tenants struggling with their housing costs or affected by the bedroom tax, where Universal Credit or Housing Benefit does not cover the cost of their rent.

That includes: Bedroom tax mitigation, £60 million; other DHPs paid already, £10.9 million; Administrative funding of £1.2 million; and today’s announcement of a further £5 million for DHPs.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will unveil details of a ‘route-map’ towards easing the country’s lockdown restrictions later today.

Call to restart cancer services in Scotland

Scottish Conservatives Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, has called for the Scottish Government to publish an NHS Scotland Recovery Plan to restart services disrupted by Covid-19, particularly cancer services.

In preparation for the Covid crisis NHS Scotland went to great lengths to free up capacity and many services were paused.

Elective surgeries were postponed for three months to free up beds and cancer screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer as well as some cancer operations were also indefinitely halted.

Now cancer charities have issued a plea to the Scottish government to get cancer services up and running again and the Scottish Conservatives have asked for a plan to deal with the backlog in treatment and operations.

In NHS England cancer treatments restarted over two weeks ago.

In addition, this morning ISD Scotland published figures showing that attendances at A&E services have dropped dramatically since the end of march, due to the measures put in place to respond to COVID-19.

The statistics highlight that during the week of the 3 May only 16,107 people were seen at A&E, compared to 27,845 for the same week in 2019, the previous year, a staggering drop of over 40%. 

Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary said: “It is vital that the Scottish Government brings forward an NHS Recovery Plan – a plan to restart our health service, particularly cancer services and operations, in Scotland.

“Over the last two months, in so many ways, people have selflessly put their own needs on hold.

“The A&E figures show that people have been staying away from the NHS meaning many people may be suffering in silence.

“But further delays will mean more patients could have poorer outcomes.

“It is now over two weeks since NHS England restarted cancer treatments, we could too.

“Thanks to the incredible work from everyone who works in our NHS, our health service has not been overwhelmed during this crisis.

“The Scottish Government must publish a plan to deal with the current backlog of operations and treatments and give everyone access to the healthcare they need before it’s too late.”

MSPs seek views on move out of lockdown

The Scottish Parliament’s Covid-19 Committee, which will be tasked with considering any changes to lockdown legislation, has launched a consultation to gather views about moving out of the current lockdown phase.

The call for views is intended to inform MSPs looking at the Scottish Government’s framework for decision-making, and considering any proposals to change the current rules.

The Committee understands that future decisions will need to balance competing demands, benefits and harms, and wants to ensure a wide range of voices are taken into account before final decisions reached.

Submissions to the committee can be made until 29 May by emailing covid.committee@parliament.scot.

The Committee is particularly keen to gather views on:

• The overall strategy set out in the Scottish Government’s Framework for Decision Making;
• The scope for differing approaches being followed in different areas – across Scotland or the UK;
• Maintaining public confidence in the public sector response to COVID-19 whilst easing current restrictions;
• How different interests could be involved in the decision-making process about lifting restrictions, and what would help the final decisions to be widely supported despite any necessary trade-offs;
• Could the current decision-making processes used by the Scottish Government to respond to COVID-19 be improved, and if so how;
• How robust is the data used to inform the response;
• How should the Scottish Government’s messaging strategy be developed as we transition out of the current lockdown (and potentially have to create other or further restrictions in the future).

Speaking as the call for views was launched, Committee Convener, Murdo Fraser MSP, said: “This is an unprecedented and complex situation which requires the Scottish Government to make difficult decisions, necessarily involving competing interests and challenging trade-offs.

“Rightly, until now, we have relied heavily on doctors and scientists. But as we move into the next phases of the Covid-19 response, as a Committee we are mindful of the need to involve a wide range of voices.

“The discussions and debates in the weeks and months ahead do not have obvious or ‘right’ answers, and understanding what different sections of society think is vital to being able to find a consensus, or at least broad agreement, on the path forward.

“To help us as we seek to find that route, we are asking people – business groups, charities, civil society, and interested members of the public – to drop us a short response outlining their thoughts on how we can and should find the right balance moving forward.”

Care Homes and Coronavirus: Holyrood committee launches survey

The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee has launched a survey looking into the particular issues faced by care homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

The digital survey is aiming to finding out the preparedness of care homes to respond to this pandemic, and how they have been supported and equipped to deal with its effects. The Committee is seeking views from care home residents, their families and care homes staff.

Over the coming weeks, the Committee will be undertaking a series of short inquiries into the Scottish Government’s response to the pandemic.

As well as looking at the issues faced by care homes, the Committee will be looking at the Government’s testing policy, issues around personal protective equipment (PPE), and the emergency planning and preparation that was in place with a view to supporting the health and social care sector’s ability to manage any potential ‘second wave’ of the virus, or future pandemic.

Lewis Macdonald MSP, Health and Sport Committee Convener, said: “As the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has continued to rise, it has become clear that care homes in particular have suffered many tragic losses.

“The most recent data from the National Records of Scotland shows more than half of Scotland’s coronavirus deaths are now happening in care homes.

“This is shocking and has a devastating impact on residents, staff and their families.

“Our Committee is determined to find out the issues that care homes are facing, how they have been supported by the Government and what can be done now to help them deal with this unprecedented challenge.”

The survey is available here: www.parliament.scot/care-homes-covid

It closes on 20th May.

Justice Committee stresses new laws on family breakdowns must be properly funded

The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee is backing Scottish Government plans to change the law on deciding parent-child contact in family breakdown cases – but warns that it may make little practical difference to the lives of children unless it is properly resourced.

The Children (Scotland) Bill was introduced by the Scottish Government in order to ensure the voices of all children (in particular those under 12) are heard in family law cases, give further protections to the victims of domestic abuse in such legal disputes, and to change a range of rules around how family breakdowns are handled by authorities, from contact centres to the legal profession.

The Committee supports these aims but has suggested a number of potential areas in which the Bill could be improved to support taking children’s views into account. These would go beyond simply removing from the statute books the current arbitrary presumption that 12 years old is the point at which a child can express their opinion.

Importantly, the infrastructure to take children’s views needs to be strengthened. Specific skills and more creative methods are crucial, particularly when dealing with younger children. And if this law is to have a positive impact, then appropriate facilities and practitioners need to be in place across Scotland to ensure that all children who wish to express their views can do so.

Speaking as the Committee’s report was published, Justice Committee Convener, Margaret Mitchell MSP, said: “The Committee is persuaded that children’s interests are best served when they are afforded the opportunity to make their views and feelings known to authorities deciding upon their future family situation.

While members are backing the Bill at this stage they are acutely aware that the law on paper will not change the reality for children and families unless it is properly resourced, and practices change. At present, the Committee has concerns around the lack of resources accompanying the Bill, and the facilities we currently have in Scotland. Unless these change, the new law may make little practical difference to the lives of families.

“Of course, any implementation of these changes may have to wait until the current response to the Covid-19 outbreak has passed, but we look forward to working with the Government to strengthen the Bill in the months ahead to ensure its laudable aims can be met in reality.”

How best can the tourist and culture industry bounce back?

Holyrood’s Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee has today issued a call for views from the culture and tourism industry on the current Covid-19 crisis.

The committee is seeking to consider how best the industry can be supported during this unprecedented time.

The Committee will use feedback received to recommend how the Government should provide effective support that mitigates the devastating impact the virus is having on the industries.

The Committee has set no deadline for responses. The call for views will remain open on an ongoing basis and will provide a forum for raising issues of concern.

Committee Convener, Joan McAlpine MSP said: “These are unprecedented times and the Committee is here to listen.

“As the weather warms our tourism industry should be coming into its high season. Instead hotels are empty, pubs are dry, and theatres are quiet.  Visitors have been told not to travel to rural areas for understandable reasons, but that will have a devastating impact on tourism business in some already fragile local economies.

“The protection of life and the ability of the NHS to cope as the virus spreads has rightly been the priority but the long-term impact that Covid-19 has created will last longer than any lockdown.

“Scotland relies heavily on its tourism and culture industry and it is vital that our industries are supported effectively during this crisis, so that they can come back and contribute to the economy once more.”

Deputy Convener Claire Baker MSP said: “Mitigating the impact of this crisis must be a top priority of the Scottish Government, as it is for the Committee.

“The mass cancellation of events and the effective lockdown of tourism will have a profound lasting effect. We will be working with the Cabinet Secretary to ensure all that can be done is being done.”

The committee will publish responses on its website on a regular basis over the coming weeks and months.

The call for views can be found here