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The recruitment of head teachers is a matter for local authorities asemployers, however the changing demographics of the teaching profession and thesocietal expectations of public sector leaders will both have been contributoryfactors in changing levels of applications for head teacher posts.

All head teachers andprospective head teachers need to demonstrate they are performing in line withthe standard for headship (SfH).). The most common means of demonstratingperformance in line with the SfH is via the Scottish Qualification for Headship(SQH). The 2006 teacher census shows that there were 310 non head teachers whohad gained the SQH compared with 248 in 2005. There were also another 390 onthe programme.

The Scottish Executiveprovides local authorities with £4 million a year to help teachers achieve theSfH and also funds more general leadership programmes and activities tosupplement funding which local authorities target to this area.

Information on the use of specificdrugs in individual patients or patient groups is not held centrally.

Yes.

ChildLine can currentlyrespond to about 60% of the calls it receives. Recent additional ScottishExecutive funding will allow ChildLine to expand its current services andincrease the response rate to around 80% for this financial year and beyond.

Specific resources madeavailable by the Executive to local authorities to safeguard young runawaysare:

a guidance pack which issuedto Child Protection Committees in July 2003 on vulnerable children and youngpeople which makes recommendations about the care of young runaways,

funding of £838,661 between2002 and 2008 from the Youth Crime Prevention Fund in support of Aberlour ChildCare Trust’s pilot project, Running Other Choices (ROC), which provides ashort-term refuge for young people aged 12 to 15, and

strengthened ChildProtection Committees as an outcome of the recently-concluded three-year ChildProtection Reform Programme which is improving multi-agency service provisionfor this (and other) vulnerable groups of children and young people.

More generally, localauthorities use their GAE provision to support local services as they see fit,and this includes the flexibility to commission or directly provide servicesfor young runaways on the basis of local need.

The Scottish Executive hasrecently provided additional funding of £536,300 (over 2007-09) to expand thecapacity of Glasgow and Aberdeen Centres and to set up a new base in Edinburgh.

The Executive has alsorecently invested in a freephone national telephone and information gatewayservice which directs the general public to local child protection serviceswhen they call to report concerns about a child or young person. This nationalgateway phone service is intended to complement existing phone-based childprotection counselling services.

The Executive continues tosupport ChildLine’s Anti-Bullying helpline and the enquire helpline (whichprovides advice and information on additional support for learning).

The Know the Score helplineand two other health-related helplines are run on behalf of the Executive bythe Department of Health. The Know the Score campaign, which includes thehelpline, provides drugs information and advice to young people.

Invitations have recentlyissued to the following organisations for membership of a proposed nationalworking group on young runaways:

Aberlour Child Care Trust

Association of Chief PoliceOfficers Scotland (ACPOS)

Association of Directors ofSocial Work (ADSW)

Association of Directors ofEducation in Scotland (ADES)

Barnardos

Convention of Scottish LocalAuthorities (Cosla)

The Scottish Coalition forYoung Runaways (Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Child Protection Office (ELBCPO)is the Coalition’s nominee)

Scottish Children’s ReporterAdministration (SCRA)

Scottish Institute forResidential Child Care (SIRCC)

YouthLink Scotland.

A representativeorganisation for the Child Protection Committees is being identified, as is arepresentative for Parenting Across Scotland. Those representatives will beinvited shortly.

The Working Group on YoungRunaways has not met yet. The first meeting is scheduled for 25 June 2007.

The Executive does not havespecific plans at present to issue guidance to local authorities on thismatter, nor does it hold information centrally about steps taken by localauthorities to provide short-term refuge. To address the issue of short-termrefuge at a national level, the Executive is funding the Glasgow-based AberlourRunning Other Choices (ROC) project which provides short-term refuge for youngpeople aged 12 to 15 who run away from home or care. This funding support (2002-08)is on a pilot project basis.

The Executive’s guidancepack on Vulnerable Children and Young People, which was published in July 2003,contains specific recommendations on young runaways. Local authorities areexpected to have developed local protocols which give effect to the guidance inways which best suit their own circumstances.

The Working Group on YoungRunaways has not met yet. The first meeting is scheduled for 25 June 2007.

The Queen Elizabeth NationalSpinal Injury Unit is able to assess and manage children aged 12 or over whoare admitted with acute spinal injuries. It also offers support, through itsliaison and outreach services, to all children in Scotlandwith spinal injuries.

The evidence suggests thatthe number of children in Scotland with highly complex spinal injuries is so small thata Scottish equivalent of the National Spinal Injuries Centre at StokeMandeville would not be viable.