A report said that the development of 'personalized' social care services in Scotland had significant implications for the voluntary workers who provided the services – including changes to working hours and flexibility, the acquisition of new skills, the development of a more casualized workforce, and the potential fragmentation of pay and conditions away from collective terms.
Source: Ian Cunningham and Dennis Nickson, Personalisation and Its Implications for Work and Employment in the Voluntary Sector, Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit
Links: Report | CCPS press release
Date: 2010-Dec
An audit report in Scotland said that in 2009-10 all National Health Service bodies had met their financial targets. But patients' demands on services were increasing; and cost pressures such as pay, fuel, and drug prescribing were expected to rise. At the same time, the year-on-year increase in funding for the health service was slowing down. This meant that all NHS bodies would have to find significantly more financial savings to deliver the same level of quality provided in previous years.
Source: Financial Overview of the NHS in Scotland 2009/10, Audit Scotland for Accounts Commission and Auditor General
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Dec
Three articles examined child protection issues within the care system in Scotland.
Source: Sharon Vincent, Brigid Daniel and Sharon Jackson, 'Where now for "child protection" in Scotland?', Child Abuse Review, Volume 19 Issue 6 | Robin Sen, 'Managing contact in Scotland for children in non-permanent out-of-home placement', Child Abuse Review, Volume 19 Issue 6 | Jennifer Davidson, 'Residential care for children and young people: priority areas for change', Child Abuse Review, Volume 19 Issue 6 Links: Abstract (1) | Abstract (2) | Abstract (3)
Date: 2010-Dec
The Scottish Parliament approved a Bill designed to replace local children's panels with a single national body.
Source: Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government/TSO | Scottish Parliament Debate 25 November 2010, columns 30932-30983, Official Report/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Official Report | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Nov
The Scottish Parliament approved a Bill designed to tackle alcohol-related harms by restricting alcohol promotions. Plans for a minimum price for alcohol were removed from the Bill because of a lack of support by opposition MSPs.
Source: Alcohol etc (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government/TSO | Scottish Parliament Debate 10 November 2010, columns 30142-30264, Official Report/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Official Report | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | Children 1st press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | Scotsman report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report by a committee of MSPs said that a Bill to legalize assisted suicide should be thrown out.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill, 1st Report 2010, SP Paper 523, Scottish Parliament End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Christian Institute report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Nov
A report by a committee of MSPs said that it 'remained to be convinced' of the need for new primary legislation to strengthen patient rights in Scotland.
Source: Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill, 9th Report 2010, SP Paper 512, Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined the findings of a research project that explored the care factors influencing the educational achievement of looked-after children in Scotland. Looked-after children performed less well academically than their counterparts in the general school population. The empirical data indicated that factors such as placement type, reason for becoming looked after, and age on becoming looked after were significant in determining educational achievement. Empirical results further indicated that looked-after children suffered from discrimination and social exclusion in many areas of their lives, including school and where they lived.
Source: Michele McClung and Vernon Gayle, 'Exploring the care effects of multiple factors on the educational achievement of children looked after at home and away from home: an investigation of two Scottish local authorities', Child & Family Social Work, Volume 15 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Nov
A report examined the potential role of the third sector in improving the way in which Scotland's health and care needs were met.
Source: The Third Sector: A Key Role in Delivering a Healthier Scotland, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
Date: 2010-Nov
The Scottish Government published a strategy designed to ensure that as many people as possible could choose how their funding for social care support was spent.
Source: Self-Directed Support: A National Strategy for Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Strategy | Scottish Government press release | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Nov
The watchdog in Scotland for the rights of children and young people said that early years implementation needed to be improved urgently. The Scottish Government needed to set a clear lead, and local authorities and health boards needed to pool resources to intervene early with vulnerable or troubled families.
Source: Aline-Wendy Dunlop, The Early Years Framework: Scoping Its Impact, Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People
Links: Report | SCCYP press release
Date: 2010-Oct
An article examined intergovernmental relations and health policy in the wake of devolution. It identified 'bottom-up' issues, in which health policy divergence created intergovernmental friction, and 'top-down' issues, in which broader conflicts affected health. Mechanisms of co-ordination and dispute resolution were 'probably inadequate' for managing conflict.
Source: Scott Greer and Alan Trench, 'Intergovernmental relations and health in Great Britain after devolution', Policy & Politics, Volume 38 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
An audit report in Scotland examined the governance arrangements of National Health Service and other public sector bodies. Accountability could be complex, with chief executives and boards reporting in different ways to the Scottish Government, ministers, and the Scottish Parliament. This risked causing confusion about who led an organization and was responsible for its decisions.
Source: The Role Of Boards, Audit Scotland for Accounts Commission and Auditor General
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A report highlighted the problems that faced people who cared for children who were part of their extended family. Difficulties faced by kinship carers included: having to give up work to meet their care responsibilities; pressure on relationships; health problems of the children cared for; financial problems; and strain on the mental health of carers.
Source: Keith Dryburgh, Relative Value: The experiences of kinship carers using the Scottish CAB service, Citizens Advice Scotland
Links: Report | CAS press release | Abelour Trust press release
Date: 2010-Oct
A new textbook examined social policy and its central relevance to social work, social care, and related practice in Scotland.
Source: Steve Hothersall and Janine Bolger (eds.), Social Policy for Social Work, Social Care and the Caring Professions: Scottish Perspectives, Ashgate Publications
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Oct
An article examined children's experiences of the child protection system in a Scottish local authority.
Source: Richard Woolfson, Emma Heffernan, Marianne Paul and Morven Brown, 'Young people's views of the child protection system in Scotland', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 40 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
An audit report in Scotland said that residential care services for children should be managed better in order to help children and young people achieve their full potential. Local councils also needed a better understanding of the costs involved, so that they could consider how their services provided value for money and possible efficiencies.
Source: Getting It Right for Children in Residential Care, Audit Scotland for Accounts Commission and Auditor General
Links: Report | Summary | Audit Scotland press release | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Sep
A review brought together the national and international evidence around 'what works' in recovery from drug addiction.
Source: David Best et al., Research for Recovery: A review of the drugs evidence base, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Summary | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2010-Sep
The Scottish Government announced that the proposed minimum price for alcohol would be set at 45 pence per unit. It said that the measure would have significant health and social benefits including, in the first year: 50 fewer deaths from alcohol-related harm; 1,200 fewer hospital admissions; a £5.5 million reduction in healthcare costs; and 22,900 fewer days' absence from work. But the proposal for a minimum price was subsequently defeated in the Scottish Parliament.
Source: Press release 2 September 2010, Scottish Government
Links: Scottish Government press release | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Sep
The Scottish Government published a 5-year action plan designed to improve the quality of patient care in primary healthcare services.
Source: Delivering Quality in Primary Care National Action Plan: Implementing the healthcare quality strategy for NHS Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Action plan | Scottish Government press release | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Aug
The Scottish Government published a strategy setting out key targets for local authorities, health boards, and other strategic partners in relation to support for unpaid carers and young carers.
Source: Caring Together: The carers strategy for Scotland 2010-2015, Scottish Government
Links: Strategy | Scottish Government press release | PRTC press release
Date: 2010-Jul
A report by a committee of MSPs said that a 'worrying lack of data' to allow for a comprehensive assessment of whether the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 was delivering on its duties of equality and non-discrimination.
Source: Report on Post-Legislative Scrutiny: the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, 4th Report 2010, SP Paper 468, Scottish Parliament Equal Opportunities Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2010-Jun
The Scottish Government published a taskforce report on implementing three linked policy frameworks designed to address the underlying causes of health and other related inequalities. The review confirmed that the frameworks remained the best approach to deliver long-term improvements in outcomes.
Source: Equally Well Review 2010: Report by the Ministerial Task Force on implementing Equally Well, the Early Years Framework and Achieving Our Potential, Scottish Government
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs examined the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill. Under the Bill, a single national body would replace local children's panels.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Bill, 6th Report 2010, SP Paper 460, Scottish Parliament Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
An article said that nearly the whole adult population of Scotland (97.5 per cent) reported at least one behavioural risk factor to their health; 55 per cent had three or more risk factors; and nearly 20 per cent had either four or five (all) risk factors. The most important determinants for having four or five multiple risk factors were low educational attainment and residence in the most deprived communities.
Source: Richard Lawder et al., 'Is the Scottish population living dangerously? Prevalence of multiple risk factors: the Scottish Health Survey 2003', BMC Public Health, Volume 10
Links: Abstract | BBC report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs said that 'fundamental weaknesses' in National Health Service management might be influencing decisions on spending, budgeting, and staff resources.
Source: NHS Board Revenue Allocations, 8th Report 2010, SP Paper 477, Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release
Date: 2010-Jun
A report questioned whether higher health spending in Scotland compared with England had made any difference to health outcomes.
Source: John McLaren, Jo Armstrong and Richard Harris, Spending on Health, Scottish Government Budget Options Briefing 3, Centre for Public Policy for Regions/University of Glasgow, with KPMG
Links: Report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jun
A report by a committee of MSPs said that it supported the principles behind the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Bill – designed to tackle alcohol misuse, including through minimum pricing.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Bill, 5th Report 2010, SP Paper 441, Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | SNP press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-May
A study examined the early progress that community health partnerships had made in Scotland, and identified the factors that had facilitated or possibly hindered progress.
Source: Glenys Watt, Onyema Ibe and Nicola McLelland, Study of Community Health Partnerships, Scottish Government
Date: 2010-May
A report by a committee of MSPs said that urgent action was needed to resolve serious shortcomings in the provision of out-of-hours healthcare in rural areas.
Source: Report on Out-of-Hours Healthcare Provision in Rural Areas, 4th Report 2010, SP Paper 421, Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Apr
An audit report said that the National Health Service in Scotland had made big changes in how it managed waiting lists since 2008, and that these had made the system fairer for patients.
Source: Managing NHS Waiting Lists: A review of new arrangements, Audit Scotland for Accounts Commission and Auditor General
Links: Report | Audit Scotland press release | Scottish Government press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Mar
An article reported ethnographic fieldwork in a 'Social Inclusion Partnership' in Scotland. It said that policy-makers and public health practitioners needed a better understanding of the difficulties involved in implementing partnership and participation initiatives in this kind of context.
Source: Sandra Carlisle, 'Tackling health inequalities and social exclusion through partnership and community engagement? A reality check for policy and practice aspirations from a Social Inclusion Partnership in Scotland', Critical Public Health, Volume 20 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Mar
A report summarized the findings of social work services performance inspections, between 2005 and 2009, in all local authority areas in Scotland. People's satisfaction with services was high; inspections found many examples of good practice, partnership working, and leadership; and where recommendations were made, in the vast majority of cases these were acted upon. However, the report also called for further improvement in some key areas, and highlighted the challenge of meeting the continuing rising demand for services when resources were tight.
Source: Improving Social Work in Scotland: A report on SWIA's Performance Inspection Programme 2005-09, Social Work Inspection Agency
Links: Report | Scottish Government press release
Date: 2010-Mar
An article examined whether there were differences between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom in the relationship between self-reported health and subsequent mortality.
Source: Harriet Young, Emily Grundy, Dermot O'Reilly and Paul Boyle, 'Self-rated health and mortality in the UK: results from the first comparative analysis of the England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland Longitudinal Studies', Population Trends 139, Spring 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Article | ONS press release
Date: 2010-Mar
The Scottish Government published a Bill designed to improve patients' rights, including a legal waiting time guarantee and a legal right to complain.
Source: Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government/TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Scottish Government press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Mar
The Scottish Government published a strategy aimed at tackling Scotland's 'obesity time bomb'. It said that if action were not taken, by 2030 nearly 4 in 10 Scots would be obese – costing Scottish society up to £3 billion a year.
Source: Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A route map towards healthy weight, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Scottish Government press release | BBC report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Feb
An article examined a comparative study of how local actors tackled health inequalities in England, Scotland, and Wales – focusing on how health inequalities were framed for intervention by performance assessment systems. Both divergence and convergence in themes across the three countries revealed narrative patterns that drew on 'discourses rather than evidence'. The nature of national performance audit regimes appeared to play an important part in shaping these discourses, which were themselves evolving, partly in interaction with local feedback.
Source: Tim Blackman et al., 'Wicked comparisons: reflections on cross-national research about health inequalities in the UK', Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, Volume 16 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Feb
The Scottish Government began consultation on a strategy for self-directed support, developed in order to help take forward the 'personalization' of health and social care services. The strategy promoted the use of individual budgets, under which users were allocated a sum of money to meet their assessed needs which they could take as a direct payment or leave to their local council or a third party to administer.
Source: Self-Directed Support: A national strategy for Scotland, Scottish Government
Links: Consultation document | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Feb
An organization representing family doctors published a policy document on the future of general practice in Scotland. It said that local support teams should be created to help practices that were struggling to provide optimum levels of access for their patients; that changing the balance of care would only succeed if any shift in work from hospitals to general practice were planned and resourced; and that new standards for out-of-hours care should be developed.
Source: General Practice in Scotland: The Way Ahead, British Medical Association Scotland
Links: Report | BMA press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Feb
A study found that alcohol misuse in Scotland was costing taxpayers between £2.4 billion and £4.6 billion each year.
Source: York Health Economics Consortium, The Societal Cost of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland for 2007, Scottish Government
Links: Report | Summary | Scottish Government press release | SNP press release | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report said that the National Health Service in England spent less on healthcare and had fewer doctors, nurses, and managers per head of population than the health services in the devolved countries (Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland): but that it was making better use of the resources it had in terms of delivering higher levels of activity, crude productivity of its staff, and lower waiting times.
Source: Sheelah Connolly, Gwyn Bevan and Nicholas Mays, Funding and Performance of Healthcare Systems in the Four Countries of the UK Before and After Devolution, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Summary | Nuffield Trust press release | NHS Confederation press release | BBC report | Telegraph report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Jan
A report examined health inequalities in Scotland between different population groups. Across most population groups, there was a repeated finding of diminished mental health because of the effects on well-being of experiencing personal prejudice, collective discrimination, and structural exclusion from full and fair participation in Scotland's material prosperity, social life, and power structures.
Source: David Gordon, Lynn Graham, Mark Robinson and Martin Taulbut, Dimensions of Diversity: Population differences and health improvement opportunities, NHS Health Scotland
Links: Report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Jan
