Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 1, 11th January 2000
SECTION 1 - THE WEEK AHEAD
1) THE CHAMBER
Wednesday 12th January
Thursday 13th January
For a brief outline of the key points for these debates, please see Section 3.
2) COMMITTEE BUSINESS
Justice and home affairs
Audit
Enterprise & Lifelong Learning
SECTION 2 - NEWS
HAMPDEN
The package put together before Christmas is generous, but it is right that the future of Scotland's national stadium is secured. The Scottish Executive is seeking urgent discussions with Queens Park FC following their announcement yesterday, and Sam Galbraith will, if appropriate, seek to make a statement to the Parliament this week.
FLU OUTBREAK
It is recognised that this is a difficult situation and there is a very high level of not just flu but flu-like illnesses, which present further complications. This is placing an almost unprecedented strain on the health service and it is testament to NHS staff and management that they are coping with these pressures. The Executive will continue to monitor the situation.
SECTION 3 - NOTES ON DEBATES THIS WEEK
1) HOUSING
This Executive Debate follows a statement by Minister for Communities Wendy Alexander on 9th December 1999 on proposals for housing legislation. This in turn followed a green paper Investing in Modernisation produced by the former Scottish Office in February 1999, and consideration of the responses published in September. There was also a statement on new measures to deal with anti-social neighbours on December 6th.
The key principles are:
Every community and every person matters.
Every community should provide a range of warm, secure housing options - public and private, rented and owned, starter and sheltered.
It's not about public versus private, but about new investment versus no investment, local tenant control versus old style municipalism, new jobs and responsive repairs versus stagnation and status quo.
There will be legislation to:
Introduce a single social tenancy, including extension of Right To Buy to many housing association assured tenants.
Establish a single regulatory system for all social landlords, including the landlord functions of local authorities.
Convert Scottish Homes from an Non Departmental Public Body into an Executive Agency of the Scottish Executive.
Deal with anti-social tenants (accounting for the fact that anti-social behaviour happens in owner-occupied housing too)
Tackle homelessness.
There will be policy development to:
Give greater priority to support social rented housing in rural areas and other areas of need.
Enhance the strategic role of local authorities who transfer their housing stock, by giving them a bigger role in allocating development funding for housing.
2) CHILDREN IN CARE
The Executive is committed to improving the standard of care for children and young people looked after by local authorities. This commitment addresses the needs of children living with foster carers, children and young people in residential accommodation, and the small, but significant number of children living in secure accommodation. The Executive is introducing a range of measures designed to begin to tackle the problems experienced by looked after children and young people and improve the standard and nature of their care.
The key points are as follows:
This is a badly neglected group of children and young people.
The Scottish Executive recognises and values the role of the state as parent. Looked after children deserve equal care and opportunities as children living with their families. The state must actively accept responsibility for the welfare of these children, not merely adopting the role of caretaker but of parent.
The Executive is committed to the improvement of standards for looked after children and shows this commitment in the targets it sets. The targets set today will monitor the achievements of these children and of this Executive in providing for these children and young people.
The Executive is already committed to:
Ensuring that all our young people leaving local authority care will have achieved at least English and Maths Standard Grades.
The provision of access to appropriate housing for care leavers.
Improving the standard of foster care in Scotland by the implementation of a Code of Practice on the recruitment and selection of foster carers.
Encouraging further foster placements, and supporting and retaining foster carers. The desire is to encourage the continuation of the current trend away from residential homes towards foster care. Extra funding of £2.2m has been given to local authorities to help improve fostering services in 1999.
The introduction of a Scottish Commission for Regulation of Care to improve the regulation of children's services. The Scottish Executive published the consultation document 'Regulating Care and the Social Services Workforce' on 23.12.99 as part of the process of developing the necessary legislation to establish a new Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care and also a Scottish Social Services Council.
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