Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 21, 29th May 2000
SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE CHAMBER
As Wednesday is a full committee day, there will be only one meeting of the full Parliament this week.
Thursday 29th May
For briefings on the main debates, see section 3.
COMMITTEE BUSINESS
Many committees continue to consider next year’s budget. The highlights of this week’s committee business, however, are:
Copies of agendas / minutes will be available from the office as soon as they are published.
SECTION 2 - NEWS
CHILDCARE SYSTEM MUST PROTECT CHILDREN AND REASSURE PARENTS - GALBRAITH
A childcare system which protects the interests of children, meets the needs of parents and treats providers consistently is the aim of proposals announced on 18th May by Minister for Children and Education Sam Galbraith.
Making a statement to Parliament on the Regulation of Early Education and Childcare, Mr Galbraith said:
"The Scottish Executive has a clear commitment in our Programme for Government to extend pre-school education to 3 year olds and to promoting a substantial expansion of childcare. This is not just a matter of increasing places available. We are committed to high quality pre-school provision. In our Childcare Strategy there are three key words - accessibility, affordability and quality.
"Regulation has played a key role in ensuring quality provision for children and parents. We believe it must continue to play a key role. Children are vulnerable: we need to ensure their safety and to ensure that they are not simply "minded" but receive enjoyable and stimulating care.
"When we regulate we must ensure that we are fair to providers and fair to families. A level playing field will help ensure that providers respond to families' needs but regulation must also be proportionate to risk and consistent.
"In March last year the Scottish Office issued a consultation paper on early education and childcare. It examined what changes might be necessary to existing regulation. Responses have been considered carefully and the paper being issued today sets out the way ahead.
"The key proposed changes are as follows:
Mr Galbraith continued:
"Many respondents had concerns about nannies. Where parents choose to employ a nanny we intend they will benefit from a range of safeguards. Regulation of nanny agencies is being strengthened as part of the Government's approach to employment agencies more generally. A Code of Practice specifically for nanny agencies will be part of this.
"We do not believe restricting parents to employment of registered nannies is a practical option. A register could not be based on qualification; many parents opt for an older person with experience but not qualifications and there is no clear dividing line between nannies and babysitters.
"However we do believe that, as part of checking suitability of a nanny, vetting against criminal record should be available. Our aim is to assist parents in making a fully informed decision."
Mr Galbraith added:
"The role of regulator will pass from local authorities to the proposed Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. This will ensure consistency of approach across Scotland and replace regulation by 32 separate local authorities.
"I intend that the Commission will inspect all provision for 0-5s including local authority nursery schools and classes. HMI will continue to make a periodic inspection of those centres delivering pre-school education. Both will base their inspection on common performance indicators - but adapted to different services or different age groups.
"I believe these proposals recognise the related nature of childcare and pre-school education, will encourage a culture of continuous improvement, and confirm our commitment to high quality pre-school provision.
"In taking this work forward we have the opportunity to drive forward the Childcare Strategy and pre-school education."
BOYACK ANNOUNCES £5.2 MILLION FOR SAFER ROUTES TO SCHOOL
Safer routes to school which encourage walking, cycling and better use of public transport, received an additional £5.2 million last Thursday from Transport and Environment Minister, Sarah Boyack.
Local authorities in Scotland are to receive the funds in the current financial year to develop the safety initiatives.
The new resources will enable local authorities to implement a range of measures including:
Speaking at Corpus Christi Primary School in Glasgow, where a safer routes project, incorporating traffic calming and a continuous cycle route, has recently been implemented, Sarah Boyack said:
"We want to encourage walking, cycling and better use of public transport as safe ways to get to school. Reducing the number of cars on the school run will mean less congestion and pollution. It will also bring health benefits as a result of increased levels of physical activity.
"This additional £5.2 million will enable local authorities to build on the Safer Routes to School guidance and will help us meet our target of reducing child deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 50 per cent by 2010.
"It is right that the safety of children on their way to school is a priority for parents. The days when all children can quite easily make their own way to school are unfortunately no longer with us. But the school car run has brought new dangers - increased traffic near our schools, increased pollution and less exercise for children.
"The Executive recognises that it is not enough just to say things need to change, we must help things change. That is why I am supplementing our Safer Routes to School Guidance with £5.2 million to help introduce measures throughout Scotland to help children travel to school safely and healthily.
"As this is National Walk to School Week, I am pleased to be able to make this contribution to promote walking to school in Scotland. Additionally I would like to encourage Scottish schoolchildren to take part in the RAC Grass Routes Challenge to come up with ways of reducing the number of cars on the school run. This is an excellent opportunity for school pupils to get involved in issues such as road safety and sustainable transport."
Guidance on How to Run Safer Routes to School projects was issued to all schools and local authorities in Scotland in December last year. The guidance gives practical advice to everyone involved in school travel on how to set up safe and environmentally friendly routes to school that will encourage children to walk, cycle or use public transport to travel to school, with the aim of cutting the number of school journeys that are made by car.
New Britain-wide targets for road accident casualty reductions in the period to 2010 were published on 1st March, together with a strategy for achieving them. The new targets are to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 40 per cent - and by 50 per cent for children - and to keep slight injuries well below the growth in traffic.
The Grass Routes competition, announced by the RAC on 22 May, invites schools to put forward proposals for safe and environmentally friendly school travel plans.
A breakdown of allocations by Local Authority will be announced shortly.
This £5.2 million is part of the £15.9 allocated to transport following the Chancellor's budget statement.
SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S DEBATES
ROUGH SLEEPERS INITIATIVE IN GLASGOW AND ACROSS SCOTLAND
The original Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) applied to London, and was initiated under the Conservative government. There was considerable discussion in housing circles regarding the applicability of the concept to Scotland during the mid-1990s, but the decision was taken to proceed. The current administration inherited the plans and RSI Scotland was launched in 1997.
The scheme has now been expanded and the Executive has made a commitment that, by 2003, no one in Scotland should have to sleep rough.
Background
The Scottish RSI has been a significant element in the Government's approach to homelessness since its introduction in 1997. Through this initiative, the Government has focused resources on the problem to ensure that by 2003 no one in Scotland will have to sleep rough because of a lack of accommodation, or of information, advice and support.
The Initiative allocates money to local authorities to develop facilities and support services for rough sleepers. A wide range of statutory and voluntary organisations have been involved in developing the proposals. The success of the early years of the Initiative is apparent as facilities are opened and services introduced. The total funding will now be £36 million for the years 1997-2002.
The Scottish RSI began in 1997, with a budget of £16 million over the 3 years from 1997-98 to 1999-2000. Local authorities, in partnership with voluntary organisations and other bodies, were invited to assess the extent of rough sleeping in their area, to establish a strategic approach to tackling the problem, and to submit bids to fund projects as part of the strategic approach.
The Initiative was established in recognition of the fact that there was a rough sleeping problem in some parts of Scotland which was not being addressed effectively. In many areas the extent of the problem was not accurately known. A key requirement for any local authority participating in the Initiative was the development of a better understanding of the extent and nature of the problem in the area.
The guidelines for bidding for RSI resources stressed the importance of partnership working between all relevant authorities and voluntary organisations to ensure resources were spent most effectively. In particular, local authorities were encouraged to involve not only their housing and social work departments but also health services, other housing organisations and other services, such as the police, at an early stage. The guidelines encouraged local authorities to seek complementary funding for the projects, and to seek commitments for long term funding, from sources other than the Initiative.
An advisory group was established to advise on the selection of bids for funding. The group was chaired by the Scottish Office and comprised representatives of Scottish Homes, COSLA, Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Council for Single Homeless, and the Simon Community, Glasgow. The advisory group produced reports making recommendations on which bids should be funded, and more generally on the development of the Initiative.
Whilst decisions on the allocation of funding have been made by Ministers, based on advice from the RSI Advisory Group, Scottish Homes has administered the Initiative funds and has been responsible for their financial management. This enabled resources to be managed flexibly, but accountably.
The first phase of the Initiative focused on developing an understanding of the extent of the problem at the local level, and developing solutions to address that problem. It was recognised that different parts of Scotland have very different experiences of rough sleeping. The scale of the problem also differs considerably. In Glasgow and Edinburgh where it is clear that there is a significant problem, some facilities and services have been in place for some time. In rural areas the problem is generally much less acute; there is less information available about rough sleeping and fewer services and facilities are in place. In some areas it is not yet clear whether there is a problem of rough sleeping.
Not all rough sleepers come from the local area. This is particularly the case in the cities. Monitoring systems which have been put in place (and have been funded) as part of the Initiative will inform any future assessment of the extent of cross border movement of rough sleepers.
A wide range of projects has been funded. In areas where there was already much information about the extent of the problem, the Initiative funded resettlement workers, direct access accommodation, and specialist supported accommodation for those with particular needs; in other areas the Initiative funded outreach work and research to help gain a better knowledge of rough sleeping in the area.
As a result of the review undertaken in 1999 there was a refocusing of the initiative. Firstly, on prevention of rough sleeping occurring; and secondly, where there is demonstrable need, move-on accommodation so that people in hostels or temporary accommodation can get permanent homes.
The September announcement
In September last year, Wendy Alexander announced an additional £6m for the Scottish RSI: £2 million for mainly rural councils, £2 million more to help provide support services, with the remaining resources targeted at preventative measures such as new local rent deposit schemes.
The new money - an additional £3m for each of the next two years - brings five year spending on the initiative to £36 million. Spending on the programme in the next two years will rise by over 40 per cent. This is a measure of the priority we give to tackling homelessness.
The Minister said: "In our Programme for Government, we pledged that no one should have to sleep rough by the end of the Parliament's first term. Let there be no mistake - this is a serious commitment. Having a roof over your head is a basic human need.
"We have signalled both how importantly we view the issue and how we are going to address the underlying causes of homelessness.
"We need to get better at ending the revolving door - where recurring homelessness becomes a problem. Instead we will get the support service right, so that when a homeless person has the offer of a home they get proper support to ensure things work out successfully.
"The £16 million allocated so far under RSI has helped get the basics right. In the last two years it has provided 138 extra accommodation places and 100 support workers. It helped 1,360 rough sleepers in the first year alone."
The current allocations
The most recent allocation of over £12 million under the RSI was announced in February 2000.
The Executive is supporting a total of 57 projects throughout Scotland to deliver on three new priorities:-
The projects include:
Homelessness: the wider context
There is mass of literature on the causes and extent of homelessness, but one frequent confusion is between people who sleep rough and people who apply to their local council as homeless. For many people homelessness and rough sleeping are synonymous, but only a small percentage of those who are homeless ever sleep rough, and these are most likely to be single white men. Many of these sleep rough seasonally or occasionally rather than all the time (which in Scotland’s climate would be fatal), and a proportion of them have substance misuse or other problems which compound their lack of a home.
By contrast, in some years women head the majority of households applying to the council under the homelessness legislation, and most homeless women and families are ‘hidden’, staying in difficult conditions with friends or relatives, or sometimes in situations of abuse. That is why the biggest category of homeless applications is ‘friends or relatives no longer willing or able to accommodate.’ Most homeless people have a housing not a social problem – they need a home.
But rough sleeping is the most visible manifestation of homelessness, and also one of the most extreme forms of social exclusion. It follows that if we can provide rights and services to people sleeping rough, we are taking a major step towards true social inclusion.
The Homelessness Task Force
This was set up last year under the chairpersonship of Jackie Baillie and has reported. The initial report contains recommendations on homelessness for the forthcoming Housing Bill. The Taskforce are undertaking a longer-term review where they will be examining the impact on homelessness of wider policies. The report stated:
"We are clear that a wide-ranging programme of action will be required if homelessness in Scotland is to be tackled effectively. We intend to bring forward proposals accordingly once we have completed our review. We recognise the need for urgency and intend to report our conclusions as soon as possible."
To read the report click on: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/homelessness/draftreport.asp
Further information
The report of the Rough Sleepers Initiative Advisory Group is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library/documents-w7/srsi-00.htm
For a list of facts on homelessness in Scotland, see the site of the Scottish Council for Single Homeless: http://www.scsh.co.uk/facts.htm
BORDERS RAIL LINK
The Rural Affairs Committee has scheduled their debate for the morning of Thursday 1st June on the issue of the Border Rail Link. Their motion has not yet been published, but this briefing will give a background to the campaign for the re-establishment of the former Waverley Route, the results of an independent study into the viability of the route and the response from the Scottish Executive.
Background
The Waverley Route was first opened by the North British Railway in 1849 from Edinburgh to Hawick, and extended to Carlisle in 1862. The line was called the 'Waverley Route' because it runs through the countryside immortalised by Sir Walter Scott and his 'Waverley' novels. The railway line was closed in the 1960’s as a result of the Beeching Report of 1959, and the policies of the pro-road governments of the time.
In recent years, the economic problems encountered in the Borders, with the closure of Viasystems and the continued downturn of the textiles industry has given added inpetus to find ways to re-invigorate the Borders economy. The Borders Working Party, a partnership of government and its agencies proposed that the re-opening of the Waverley line be considered and subsequently a feasibility study was commissioned.
A local pressure group, the Campaign for Borders Rail, formed in the summer of 1999, has been lobbying politicians and decision. Their petition lodged with the Public Petitions Committee in March 2000 has 17,000 signatures, and the Committee met in Galashields to consider the issues behind the petition.
The Campaign for Borders Rail, set out the following objectives in their petition to the Parliament:
The issue has been raised a number of times in the Parliament. Christine Grahame sponsored members’ debate in November. The Public Petitions Committee discussed it in March and then referred it to the Transport and Environment Committee. They then passed it on to the Rural Affairs Committee, and Rural Affairs, believing that the issue was of great significance to the rural economy in the Borders wrote directly to the Presiding Officer.
Independent Feasibility Study
The feasibility study into the reopening of the disused Borders railway from Edinburgh was published in February 2000. This study was commissioned by the Scottish Executive, Scottish Borders Council, Midlothian Council and Scottish Borders Enterprise. It was proposed by the Borders Working Party as a contribution to the consideration of how transport links to the area could be improved to the benefit of its economy.
The study offers a full assessment of what would be required to reopen the railway following 30 years of disuse. It presents a basis for the key stakeholders in the Borders to make decisions based on sound facts and to consider the funding alternatives open to them.
Key findings on a rail link to the north
A frequent passenger rail service from Central Borders to Edinburgh could cover its direct operating costs. This would suggest a half hourly service from Tweedbank to Edinburgh with stations at Galashiels and at a number of places in Midlothian and Edinburgh.
Estimated capital cost: £73 million.
A frequent passenger rail service from Gorebridge to Edinburgh could cover its direct operating costs with a similar level of service as above.
Estimated capital cost: £27 million.
Key findings on a rail link to the south
The southern section of the former Waverley route, incorporating the branch towards Kielder, and joining the west coast mainline at Longtown could form the basis of a freight railway.
The study did not find an economic case for the route at present but it could be re-instated at an estimated cost of £26 million.
The Executive’s Response to the Feasibility Study
On the day that the study was published (15th February 2000), Sarah Boyack said:
"The study is the product of a thorough analysis of the technical feasibility of reopening part or all of disused railway line from Edinburgh to Carlisle together with a detailed assessment of the economic, social and environmental impacts. Both the capital costs and operational viability of a range of options have been examined in detail. For all of these options the study has found that there would be a need for considerable public funding.
"The study is an impartial and independent one. It has applied a robust methodology to arrive at a set of conclusions that can now be considered by the key stakeholders, in particular the relevant local authorities, local enterprise companies and the rail industry.
"As intended, the study does not make any recommendations on whether or not the project should be progressed and, if so, how. That is for the key stakeholders to decide and take forward with other interested parties, including the Scottish Executive, as appropriate.
"This study has taken on fully the integrated transport agenda, looking beyond immediate impacts to assessing the wider economic, social, environmental benefits and costs of reopening the line.
"I know expectations in the Borders are running high. They are born out of a justifiable sense of feeling marginal to the rest of the country. Whilst recognising these concerns and demonstrating how a railway might reduce the sense of isolation, at the same time as generating local economic and environmental benefits, the study also details the reality of the cost of reinstatement.
"Whatever option the key stakeholders in the Borders choose to promote, the public purse would have to bear most of the cost of construction. The study finds that both preferred passenger options (Galashiels (Tweedebank) - Edinburgh and Gorebridge and Edinburgh –) are likely to be viable – if the railway was already built.
"This means the challenge is to present a sound case for public funding and I call on Borders Railway backers to use this study and make that case.
"The Scottish Executive has the Public Transport Fund and the Rural Transport Fund, both of which have already supported significant integrated transport initiatives. The shadow Strategic Rail Authority administers the Rail Passenger Partnership scheme."
Further Information
Official Report of the Petitions Committee consideration of the public petition for the re-establishment of the Borders Railway: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/official_report/cttee/petit-00/pu00-0602.htm
Campaign for Borders Rail: http://www.borderrail.com/
Scottish Executive Press Release: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/news/press2000_03/se0359.asp
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Articles ] [ Calendar ] [ Contacts ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ Open Government ] [ Scottish Parliament ]