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In assessing the overall level of funding to be provided to local authorities in 2011-12, the Scottish Government has negotiated a funding package with the COSLA leadership. For each local authority to secure its share of that package, it will be required to agree to deliver certain commitments, including continuing to work with the Scottish Government towards implementation of the Carers and Young Carers Strategy at local level, including the maintenance of an extra 10,000 weeks respite care. Under the terms negotiated, if Glasgow City Council agrees to deliver the full package, its overall resource funding for 2011-12 will be reduced by 2.6% compared to the funding it received in 2010-11. If the council chooses not to agree to the full package, its resource funding will be reduced by 6.4%.

A provisional funding allocation of the total local government settlement to each council for 2011-12 will be announced to the Parliament in a statement in early December 2010, accompanied by a finance circular issued to local authorities. The provisional allocation will be calculated on the basis that all local authorities will agree the terms of the package. Subject to their responses, final amounts will then be confirmed in two stages, first in a local government finance order which will be laid for parliamentary approval in February 2011, following the passage of the Budget Bill, and second in an amendment order to be laid in March 2011 after all local authorities have set their council tax levels for 2011-12.

Within the total to be provided to Glasgow City Council, under the terms of the local government funding settlement, ring fencing for specific services has largely been removed. As a result, whether or not Glasgow City Council agrees to the package, funding for respite care within the total it receives will not be separately identified. It will be for the council to determine what it spends on respite care.

Between 2007-08 and 2009-10, Glasgow City Council''s recorded respite provision decreased by 3,560 weeks.

The Scottish Government provided an extra £4.19 million over two years to local authorities on top of the overall settlement to enable local authorities to deliver in full by 2010-11 the commitment in the concordat to progress towards delivering 10,000 extra respite weeks. Of this extra £4.19 million, the allocation in 2009-10 is £1.370 million, intended to help deliver an increase of 6,000 weeks in that year. Glasgow''s share of this was £0.165 million which would equate to an additional 240 weeks. Both the interim target of 6,000 weeks by 2009-10 and the 2010-11 target of 10,000 weeks are Scotland-wide. These weeks have not been apportioned amongst local authorities. This reflects both the fact that the concordat commitment is Scotland-wide and the different costs associated with different types of respite. It is noted that 24 local authorities contributed positively to the delivery of the additional 8,950 respite weeks recorded in 2009-10.

The Scottish Government allocated Glasgow City Council an additional £0.165 million in 2009-10 and £0.332 million in 2010-11 for the provision of respite. This, together with allocations to the other local authorities, was on top of the overall local government settlement. The purpose was to enable local authorities to deliver in full by 2010-11 the commitment in the concordat to progress towards delivering 10,000 extra respite weeks.

The Scottish Government, through the Partnership Information Network (PIN) policies, sets the minimum standard NHSScotland boards must meet when providing support for staff with health issues. The PIN policy Managing Health at Work makes clear that it is crucially important that staff have access to competent occupational health services.

Earlier this year the Scottish Government and the Management Steering Group of NHS Scotland established the Occupational Health and Safety Strategic Forum. As part of its remit, I have asked the Forum to develop a new strategic framework for occupational health and safety provision for staff within NHSScotland, to replace the current strategy, Towards a Safer, Healthier Workplace, published in 1999.

This strategic framework will provide an opportunity to confirm our commitment to a person centred approach towards health, wellbeing and safety at work, ensuring all staff are well supported by an integrated strategy that adds value to existing occupational health and safety policies and services.

The information requested is given in Annex 1 on page 13 of An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland: Respite Care, Scotland 2010 published by the Scottish Government on 28 September 2010, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52073).

The £4.4 million announced by the Minister for Care Services in October 2010 is not new investment. It is being reinvested from the Caring with Confidence programme which came to an end in July 2010. Therefore this money does not carry any Barnett consequential.

The Winter Fuel Payment is included in the annual household income which is used to calculate fuel poverty. If this is deducted from the income of all 60 to 65 year olds approximately 1,100 more households would be in fuel poverty.

In 2008 (the most recent year for which figures are available), there were approximately 137,000 people aged between 60 and 65 (inclusive) living in fuel poverty.

DWP have informed the Scottish Government that for winter 2008-09 (the latest period for which figures are available) there were 3,282,870 winter fuel payment recipients aged between 60 and 64 in Great Britain as a whole and 289,030 in Scotland. They expect the figures to be similar for winter 2009-10. (Figures are available in five year age bands for people between 60 and 79 and for all over 80s.)