Scotland National Rape Crisis Helpline launched

Scotland will pioneer the first national rape helpine to offer support and information to anyone affected by sexual violence. The Scottish national rape helpline which is being launched today will provide support to victims and help for friends and relatives. The Rape Crisis Scotland helpline will be open seven days a week from 6pm until midnight. The freephone number is 08088 01 03 02.

Neither Scotland or the rest of the UK currently have a national helpline. Current funding levels only allow volunteers to handle phone lines for a few hours two or three days a week. This poor provision was despite the fact that reported rapes north of the Border had risen 8-per cent.

Women who were desperately in need of advice and support often had to leave messages on the answerphones because the helplines were not open. It was feared that this could be deterring women from reporting crimes such as domestic abuse cases.

Scotland's conviction rate for rape is among of the worst in Europe at approx 4-per cent. Reported rapes rose from 596 in 1997-98 to 900 in 2004-05 an 8-per cent increase.

Crerar Review: Public Scrutiny in Scotland

The Report by Professor Lorne Crerar of the “Independent review of regulation, audit, inspection and complaints handling of public services in Scotland” was published on Tuesday 25th September 2007 on http://www.scrutinyreview.org/

The Crerar review concludes there is widespread agreement that Scotland’s scrutiny system is too complex, costly and burdensome on public bodies. From the evidence gathered, Crerar finds that the scrutiny system doesn’t necessarily scrutinise the right things, has grown in a piecemeal fashion and requires strategic co-ordination.

The Crerar report short to medium term recommendations

• a radical increase in the sharing of information and co-ordination
between bodies.
• a renewed focus on users of services
• involving service users in standards setting
• an increased role for parliament
• fewer scrutiny organisations
• accessible reports by scrutiny bodies
• proportionality - focusing on poorer performing service providers and higher risk situations

Crerar Report - One scrutiny body for all?

In the longer term the report proposes moving to one national scrutiny body, one audit body, and one complaints handling body for the whole public sector.

Crerar report - other recommendations

The Crerar report also recommends that –
• Core risk criteria should be agreed by Ministers and agreed by Parliament to assess the need for current and future scrutiny
• Ministers should redistribute resources and functions from within NHS QIS,
the Scottish Government’s Health Directorates and the Care Commission in relation to private hospitals and related treatment – to an independent external scrutiny organisation
• All external scrutiny organisations should have one “status” with clearly defined lines of accountability to Parliament and to Ministers.
• Where scrutiny is needed, if there is more than one existing organisation, only one should be asked to do the work and be fully responsible and accountable. Creating a new scrutiny organisation should not be an option.

Crerar Report: Principles of scrutiny

The focus should shift to self assessment, supported by risk based, proportionate
external scrutiny. As service provider performance management improves in quality
and ability to reassure users, public and elected members, scrutiny can become
more proportionate to the risks, which in turn frees up delivery organisations to focus
further on improving their front line services. The scrutiny framework should –
􀂃 focus on the needs of the people who use services being scrutinised,
􀂃 drive improvement,
􀂃 ensure that public money is used as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The principles behind the system are for a simplified scrutiny landscape, with a
proportionate and co-ordinated approach.

Crerar Report: The future for Scrutiny bodies

The report does not make specific recommendations in relation to the future of particular scrutiny bodies as this was not the remit of the review. However the report does recommend that in the longer term there should be the development of one scrutiny body and this will have implications for a number of existing bodies.

Crerar Report: A Risk based and Outcome focussed approach to Scrutiny?

The report argues strongly for scrutiny which is risk based and which moves away from scrutinising inputs and processes and towards measuring outcomes.

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/82980/0053065.pdf

Healthcare associated infections study

National Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) Point Prevalence Survey

This survey, carried out by Health Protection Scotland, is the most
comprehensive study ever undertaken into the extent of infections in Scotland
and leads the way in HAI research in Europe.

The survey recorded the presence of all types of infections in one day for every patient in every acute hospital. The survey found that the prevalence of HAI was 9.5 per cent in acute hospitals
and 7.3 per cent in community hospitals and the cost of these infections was approx. £183m per
year.
The study found that the highest numbers of HAI in acute hospitals were present in care of the elderly, medical and surgical wards.
The HAI task force will take these findings forward and is focusing on the following areas:
• examining the case for introducing an MRSA screening programme - targeting skin and soft tissue infections
• reducing blood stream infections
• ensuring additional surveillance data are put to use in the areas of general medicine and care of the elderly.

Vulnerable Young People transitions research

Scottish Executive: Review of Research on Vulnerable Young People and Their Transitions to Independent Living

The Scottish Executive has published a Review of research on vulnerable young people which was conducted by the Centre For Research on Families and Relationships, The University of Edinburgh ( Authors; Susan Elsley, Kathryn Backett-Milburn, Lynn Jamieson) The Full report is available from www.scotland.gov.uk/research

The report examines available research and data on the issues around vulnerable young people and their transitions from care to indepenedent living.

Recovered memories of abuse:new research

New research suggest that memories of abuse recovered through therapy may be less reliable than memories which are recovered spontaneously.

Some years ago an intense debate began about the reliability of recovered memories of abuse when a number of very high profile cases hit the headlines in a number of coutnries. In some of these cases memories of abuse had been recovered through intensive therapy and there was much debate whether such memories could be relied upon as accurate recollections of past events.

The whole issue of the reliability of recovered memory became a very hot topic in the fields of psychology and psychiatry with fierce advocates on both sides.

Elke Geraerts, a psychology post doctoral researcher at Harvard University and Maastricht University, the Netherlands, aimed to try to throw light on this problem using a large-scale research study designed to test the validity of such memories.


Of course people who recover memories in this way will tend to be convinced they are real authentic memories and this makes validating the recovered memories difficult.

Geraerts and her colleagues avoided this problem by using outside sources to corroborate the memories.

The researchers recruited people who reported being sexually abused as children.

They divided them into three groups.
1) Those whose memories were categorized as either "spontaneously recovered" (the participant had forgotten and then spontaneously recalled the abuse outside of therapy, without any prompting),
2) those whose memories had been "recovered in therapy" prompted by suggestion

3) those whose memories ofthe abuse was "continuous" in that they had always been able to recall the abuse.

Interviewers, who had no knowledge of which group the subject fell into, then interviewed other people who could confirm or refute the abuse events. these included others who heard about the abuse soon after it occurred, others who reported also having been abused by the same perpetrator, and those who admitted having committed the abuse.


The results to be published in the July issue of Psychological Science, journal of the Association for Psychological Science, showed that,

1) overall, spontaneously recovered memories were corroborated almost as often (37% of the time) as continuous memories (45%) but were less reliable.

2) memories that were recovered in therapy could not be corroborated at all.

Of course not being able to of confirm that the abuse had happened does not prove that the memory is false. It does however suggest that memories recovered in therapy need to be treated with a great dela of caution, as the therapy context raises the opportunity for suggestion.
.
Source: news release issued by Association for Psychological Science.

Care Home Standards:When big is not better

The Care Home market in the UK has seen a significant move over recent years towards the consolidation of ownership into the hands of fewer and larger ownership organisations. While in financial terms this may make sense there has been concern among commissioners and regulators whether these larger corporate organisations are always delivering a better quality of care in their homes in comparison to the smaller or single single home providers that are becoming a less significant part of the market.

Much of the concern about the standards in the Care Homes provided by the "big players" has admittedly been anecdotal and we are not aware that there has been any systematic study of this in the UK. Nevertheless the anecdotal evidence seems quite strong and it has been interesting to speculate why these larger organisations sometimes do not match the quality of care in smaller scale provider organisations.

Now a study by the University of Michigan School of Public Health suggests that the very strengths of the larger nursing home chain- its ability to standardize and perfect administrative practices throughout the chain-may also be the very thing that hurts patient care. While the study was confined to the more Nursing Home oriented facility in the US, it may have important lessons for the delivery of care across the Care Home sector.

"Consumers need ways to identify what is a good or bad nursing home when making choices about where to place a loved one," said Jane Banaszak-Holl, corresponding author on the study. "Right now, we have an easier time distinguishing the quality in McDonalds versus Boston Market than we have distinguishing how, for example, a Sun-owned nursing home differs from a Beverly Enterprises nursing home."

As in the UK these larger chain-owned nursing homes are the predominant type of institutional care in the United States. Studies in the US have shown that care in chain-owned nursing homes is generally not as good as care in nonprofit and singly-owned nursing homes.

"If they (chain-owned nursing homes) are really not as good, we need to think about how to improve them," said Akiko Kamimura, a U-M doctoral student in Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health, and first author of the study.

The study suggests that corporate standardization of clinical and facility processes improved resident care, but that corporate standardization of administrative processes hurt patient care. The study concluded that chains need to balance administrative efficiency with the local needs of the individual chain-owned facilities to optimize the quality of their patient care.

The researchers surveyed 203 nursing homes in Michigan and North Carolina and looked at the effects of corporate standards and training in three areas: administrative processes, clinical processes, and facility design. The study examined the impact on the total number of health deficiencies given to facilities on state inspections, and the percentage of residents with bedsores. An example of a health deficiency would be inserting a catheter unnecessarily because it makes care easier.

An example of standardizing administrative processes would be to share common marketing materials. An example of facility standardization would be to use the same facility layout, and an example of standardizing clinical processes might be to implement guidelines for the treatment of resident bedsores throughout the chain.

"Standardization is a way to think about changing service delivery across many areas, including administrative and clinical processes and even within facility layout," said Banaszak-Holl. Chains that over-emphasize administrative processes don't take advantage of how much their staff can learn---and ultimately improve patient care---from the shared knowledge of developing protocols for handling resident needs.

"What we have stressed in the larger project is that chain ownership is not necessarily bad for the quality of health care, Banaszak-Holl said. "What is problematic is a shift away from community values and local needs, and an overly strong emphasis on administrative rather than clinical outcomes. A good corporate chain can implement a set of practices that still attends to local needs and resident outcomes while introducing greater economies of scale and better business practices."

The study, "Do corporate chains affect quality of care in nursing homes" The role of corporate standardization" appears in Health Care Management Review.

Dementia: Research supports person centered care

An intensive comparative study of two nursing home units using contrasting approaches to dementia care for elders with severely disturbed behaviors has shown that "humanizing" approaches to dementia care may not only extend quality of life for patients, but also their length of life.

Central Michigan University professor of anthropology Athena McLean in her recently published book, "The Person in Dementia: A Study of Nursing Home Care in the U.S.," demonstrates the very different outcomes of two approaches to dementia care: a rigid task-oriented maintenance approach which placed emphasis on disease progression and a flexible person-centered approach which focussed on the older persons communication and individual needs.

There were dramatic differences in patient quality of life at the two nursing units.

Patients at the person-centered unit, where staff looked beyond physical and reasoning abilities to the person's will and relationship with others, were happier, had improved quality of life and lived longer.

Those at the unit which focussed on disability and pathology tended to have personal needs ignored, were heavily medicated and often failed to thrive.

"These findings address issues that medicine can't answer," said McLean. "They are valuable not only for improving the general quality of life for these elders, but also for the long-term outcome based on how they are treated and cared for. These elders require attention, time and a lot of caring interaction."

The study also showed that relations among professional and administrative staff within a service can significantly affect the quality of the dementia care elders receive.

According to McLean; "Good caregivers are leaving the profession because they are underpaid and unappreciated. It needs to be understood by policy makers, family members and clinicians alike that money needs to be put into retaining quality caregiving staff, instead of only fancy facilities, which is currently the trend."

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Translate documents to Braille free

A Danish company has launched a free service which will automatically translate documents into either Braille or speech. The service is free for non-commercial use and may be of great assistance for organisations seeking to ensure equality of access for the sight impaired.

The service can be obtained through the RoboBraille website .

RoboBraille allows the user to;

• Translate documents into contracted Braille
• Translate documents into speech
• Translate text into visual Braille
• Convert text documents between different character sets
• Convert Braille documents to specific Braille character sets
• Partition documents into smaller parts

Research: Dementia patients die from prescribed drugs

Research by a leading UK dementia charity, the Alzheimer's Research Trust, has revealed that many Alzheimer’s patients die early because of prescribed sedatives. The research is the largest neuroleptic withdrawal study of Alzheimer's patients and the only long-term one of its type.

The research results were presented at the Alzheimer's Research Trust conference in Edinburgh. Results from the five-year project, which was funded by the Alzheimer’s Charity revealed that the prescribed drugs were linked to a significant increase in long-term mortality - patients dying on average six months earlier than normal.

The investigation was conducted by King’s College London researchers and found that the sedatives, known as neuroleptics, were associated with significant deterioration in verbal fluency and cognitive function. They also found that neuroleptic treatment had no benefit to patients with the mildest symptoms.

In nursing homes they found up to 45% of people with Alzheimer’s disease are prescribed neuroleptics as a treatment for behavioural symptoms such as aggression.

Professor Clive Ballard, Professor of Age Related Disorders at King’s College London, and lead researcher on the project, said:

“It is very clear that even over a six month period of treatment, there is no benefit of neuroleptics in treating the behaviour in people with Alzheimer’s disease when the symptoms are mild – specifically when a measure of behavioural disturbance known as the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Score is equal to or less than 14. For people with more severe behavioural symptoms, balancing the potential benefits against increased mortality and other adverse events is more difficult, but this study provides an important evidence base to inform this decision-making process.”

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:

“These results are deeply troubling and highlight the urgent need to develop better treatments. 700,000 people are affected by dementia in the UK, a figure that will double in the next 30 years. The Government needs to make Alzheimer’s research funding a priority.

“Only £11 is spent on UK research into Alzheimer's for every person affected by the disease, compared to £289 for cancer patients.”

It will be interesting to see if this research results in changes to prescribing patterns for Dementia patients, particularly in care setting where there has been concern at the use of medication as a form of chemical restraint.

An outsiders view of Elderly Care Home Standards

Random Acts of Reality is written by a London Ambulance worker. He has written about his experience of visiting a care home to pick up an elderly lady. It makes sobering reading and illustrates just how far some care settings have to go to achieve reasonable standards.

Scottish Care Commission Frequency of Inspection New regulations

The Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (The Care Commission ) will in future operate under a new framework of Scottish Regulations for the minimum frequency of Inspection.
The Care Commission previously operated under a minimum frequency of Inspection of 12 months for all registered care services. The new minimum inspection frequency regulations change the minimum frequency for certain types of regulated services;

• For Housing Support services operated by a social Landlord minimum inspection frequency becomes 36 months.
• For Day Care of children services where the service is only for children aged 3 yrs or over minimum inspection frequency becomes 24 months.
• For Child Care Agencies - 24 months
• For Nurse Agencies - 24 months.
• For all other service types the minimum inspection frequency is 12 months.

Mental Welfare Commission Scotland Guidance April 2007

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland produces a number of helpful guidance documents;
The current list -

Nutrition by artificial means- a guide for mental health practitioners - new legal and ethical guidance for practitioners considering the use of artificial nutrition for mental disorder.

Consent to treatment - new guidance to help mental health practitioners interpret the legal basis for treatment and to give treatment that is in line with best legal and ethical practice.[2006]

Covert medication - a legal and practical guide - new This guidance responds to cases and research evidence that identifies this is an issue for those using and providing mental health and learning disability services in Scotland. The guidance suggests that there may be situations in which this might be necessary to keep an individual from harm. A Covert medication care pathway and review is provided to support decision making, that is structured and recorded in a way that safeguards that the health, safety and legal rights of the individual. [2006]

Guide to interpreting - new a toolkit for people who need to use interpreters in mental health and learning disability settings. Includes checklists for service providers, service users and interpreters. [2006]

Carers and confidentiality - new good practice guidance on how to balance the principle of carer involvement with the patient's right to confidentiality. [2006]

Rights, risks and limits to freedom (new edition) - guidance updated to take into account the principles of the new mental health act. Includes an appendix of legal considerations by Hilary Patrick. [2006]

Guide to welfare and financial guardianship in care homes - a summary guide for residential care workers with checklist that can be attached to resident's files. [2006]

Safe to Wander - Principles and guidance on good practice in caring for residents with dementia and related disorders where consideration is being given to the use of wandering technologies in care homes and hospitals. [2005]

Information for general hospitals - guidance on treatment of patients with a mental illness, learning disability or other mental disorder in general hospital settings. [2006]

Guidance on the admission of young people to adult mental health wards - guidance on the provision of care and treatment to under 18 year olds when admitted to adult wards. [2005]

When to invoke the Adults with Incapacity Act - updated guidance reflecting recent case law. [2005]

Authorising significant interventions for adults who lack capacity - guidance on the use of the Adults with Incapacity Act by Hilary Patrick. [2004]

Care of older people with mental health problems - a position statement on mixing dementia patients and patients with longer term mental disorder in a single ward. [2004]

CSCI hands over childrens services regulation

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has predicted that the handover of the inspection of children's services to education regulator Ofsted would not see immediate changes to the inspection approach.

CSCI's made the handover to Ofsted officially on April 1 at which point responsibility for regulation and inspection of most children's social care services in England moved from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to Ofsted.

The office of the children's rights director, Roger Morgan, based within CSCI, also joins the new Ofsted.

A CSCI statemnt said: "The inspection and regulation of children's services does not change significantly in the short term, with many CSCI staff transferring to Ofsted and continuing the focus on the experience of children who use services."

CSCI retains all functions for adult social care including services for younger adults and older people. It will also continue to regulate a small number of services that serve both adults and children - some home care services, nurses agencies, care homes and specialist further education colleges registered as care homes. CSCI will also continue to have an interest in the transition from children's to adults' services.

Ofsted also has a new title as the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.

Christine Gilbert, chief inspector of education, children's services and skills, , said: "The reach of the new inspectorate is extensive. At least one person in three makes use of the services we shall inspect or regulate. This puts us in a position to make a difference to the lives of many millions of our fellow-citizens, of all ages. This is a privilege, and a great responsibility."

CSCI: One person childrens Homes and childrens services reports

A recent Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) report raises questions about the value of "one-person children's homes". Councils can pay anything up to £6,000 a week to place children with extreme and complex needs in such homes but there appears to be no proof that approach benefits the children concerned.
In "one person children's homes" a child is often kept in a private house together with non-resident staff working in shifts. CSCI found that despite government guidance stressing the importance of children in care staying in their local area they are often located far from the child's own community.
The number of such children's homes is increasing, but it is not clear that councils have properly considered their efficacy. Children may stay in these homes for a few months or for periods of years.
CSCI notes that the homes are "extremely expensive" and questions whether the councils who are getting a good deal. Private providers are able to charge so much for the services because the provision is so scarce.

Denise Platt, CSCI chairwoman, said: "We don't know enough about how children respond to living on their own in these one place children's homes... It may well be convenient for local councils to place children with complex needs in these homes, but the impact on the children who live there is still unclear."
In some cases the impression was that the care process had not been "thought through", Dame Denise said.

Children living in some of the one-person homes told inspectors they were glad to escape bullying and enjoyed more attention from staff but they also often missed the company of other children and felt lonely.
Inspection reports revealed the homes did worse than larger children's homes in key areas, including support for individual children and the training and competency of staff.

Some councils do not use one person homes on principle and those who do tend not to do so as a first choice. Youngsters being placed usually have complex emotional or behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities and mental health problems, and may be difficult to control.
Some homes were found to be illegally limiting children's freedom - although they are not officially secure accommodation.

CSCI has also published a report on childrens services , The report found a need to improve progress in a number of areas including;

Increasing financial pressures are resulting in high eligibility criteria and thresholds for access to local council services. Children and families are, as a result, not always getting the help they need.
There is not enough support for children when they are taken into care and placed in a children’s home or with foster parents.
There are shortfalls in services to vulnerable children and young people with mental health problems, and in particular for children in care and their families.
Children in care do less well in education. While there have been improvements, more needs to be done, and done quickly.
Services to children with disabilities vary considerably depending on where they live. Services to children whose parents are disabled are similarly variable from one local council area to another.
There is insufficient coordination between children’s and adults’ social services teams in local councils to ensure coordinated help.

Scottish Executive guidance on Social Care Staff recruitment

The Scottish Executive has published a document Safer Recruitment through Better Recruitment which gives advice on safe staff recruitment practice in the social care sector.

Duty of Care.

What is the Duty of Care?
Duty of care is the obligation to exercise a level of care towards an individual, as is reasonable in all the circumstances, to avoid injury to that individual or his property.

The Duty of care is therefore based on the relationship of the different parties, the negligent act or omission and the reasonable foreseeability of loss to that individual.

A negligent act is an unintentional but careless act which results in loss. Only a negligent act will be regarded as having breached a duty of care. Whether an Act is negligent can only be considered in context. Liability for breach of a duty of care also very much depends on what the public policy is at the time the case is heard.

In Scotland this area of the law is called Delict while in England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is called the law of Tort. Delict and tort differ from the law of contract. Contracts generally specify the duties on each of the parties and the remedy if these duties are breached. Upon entering into a contract, the parties obtain specific rights and certain duties. In delict or tort these duties exist through the nature of the parties relationship regardless of the contractual obligations.


Under both jurisdictions, delict and tort try to strike a balance between the individual's wrongful conduct and compensating the victim for his loss.

Although much of the law of delict and tort has been developed by Courts, there are also now a number of statutory rules which apply for example to employment, disability discrimination, health and safety, data protection and occupier's liability.

Many of the general principles and the law of negligence are now more or less the same under the two jurisdictions but there are a number of differences between them, for example, the law of defamation in Scotland in comparison to libel and slander in England, and the law of nuisance.

Any relevant case law or decisions of any of the UK courts are often generally relevant and applicable to other similar situations regardless of where they are situated.

The basic principles of Duty of Care

The leading Scottish case of Donoghue v Stevenson 1932 SC (HL) 31 set out principles that still form the basis for establishing a duty of care under Scots and English law.

These are:

Does a duty of care exist?
This depends on the relationship between the parties. A duty of care is not owed to everyone but only to those who have a sufficiently close relationship. There is no liability if the relationship between the parties is too remote. Closeness in this context of course implies also "professional" relationship or responsibility.

Is there a breach of that duty?
Liability only arises if the action breaches the duty of care and causes a loss or harm to the individual which would have been reasonably foreseeable in all the facts and circumstances of the case.

Did the breach cause damage or loss to an individual's person or property?
Originally, when Donoghue was decided, the duty of care was thought only to be applicable to physical injury and damage to property, however this has now extended in some cases to where there is only economic loss.

In a Social Care context a Duty of care will usually exist where the Social Care worker has some professional or work responsibility for delivering a service to an individual. A breach would arise where a negligent act or omission to act resulted in harm to that individual and the harm was foreseeable.

Recommended reading: The Health and Social Care Hanbook - explains a rangge of health and Social Care law
Important Note: This note is not a definitive guide to the law relating to duty of care in either England and Wales or Scotland. It aims to give a general description only. Anyone concerned about Duty of Care or a breach of a duty of care is advised to seek legal advice.

Scottish Exec launches National Child Protection public information phone line.

The Scottish Executive has launched a 24 hr child protection information line designed to complement Scottish child protection services. The child protection information telephone line runs in tandem with a National Child Protection Website. (Child Protection Line Tel - 0800 022 3222)

The child protection line gives easy access to child protection services and allows people to share concerns about a child with the most appropriate local agency. People who call the confidential child protection line freephone number will speak to a trained operator.

Depending on the nature of the call, the operator may transfer the caller to the most relevant agency, or advise who the caller should speak to next

Scottish Executive Education Minister Hugh Henry said:

"All children deserve the best possible start in life but too many find their young lives blighted by abuse or neglect. For those vulnerable youngsters, it's vital that they get help as soon as possible. That means that we all have a duty to step in if we fear a child is in trouble. We must never assume that the authorities - police, social work or education - are already aware of the situation.

"However, we know there is often confusion about who to call or how to get help. This service will provide a single, nationwide access point, helping all of us to help vulnerable youngsters."

The introduction of the information line follows a pilot in the North-east of Scotland in 2005 and delivers a commitment from the Children's Charter to provide a nationwide, 24-hour child protection information service.

Inspector Peter Reilly, who is also the Grampian Police Child Protection Co-ordinator, said:

"The pilot was extremely effective in raising awareness that it is everyone's job to make sure that children are protected. The lessons learned from the pilot have been invaluable in preparing for the wider national response and the roll out of the national Child Protection Line. The NESCPC welcomes the national launch as a means of reaching a wider audience, further raising awareness and so helping to protect our children and young people."

The Scottish Executive's Child Protection Reform Programme budget will provide the set-up and running costs of the line which will be around £200,000 over three years

The Children's Charter, launched in March 2004, included a commitment by the Scottish Executive that they would 'work with agencies and existing helplines to provide a 24-hour national child protection service'.

The charter was part of the Executive's three-year child protection reform programme - a response to It's Everyone's Job to Make Sure I'm Alright, the child protection audit and review. A MORI poll undertaken as part of this review indicated that people didn't know what to do if they had a concern, how to report it and what might happen if they did.

It will also be supported by a poster campaign - in GP surgeries, community venues and other local outlets - and copies of the poster images are available.

Although the 24-hour information line will operate nationwide from the outset, publicity for the new resource will be rolled out in a phased way, concentrating initially on Midlothian, Highland, Edinburgh and the North-east (covering Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray).
Source:Scottish Executive

Scotland: Adult Support and Protection Bill approved

MSP's have approved a new Bill that offers greater protection to adults at risk of abuse.
The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Bill will give new powers and a statutory responsibility to local agencies to investigate any risk of harm or abuse to adults living in care homes or in the community.
Deputy Health Minister, Lewis Macdonald said:
"The passing of this new Bill sends out a clear message today - abuse of adults at risk will not be tolerated in Scotland.
"It's vital that we protect vulnerable adults from the risk of harm, whether this is caused by physical injury, neglect, sexual abuse or financial exploitation. This new legislation will mean that these often hidden problems can be tackled sensitively and constructively."
New powers remove uncertainties about the duty to act and will make it possible to investigate allegations of mistreatment. Assessment of the person and their circumstances can be carried out and appropriate support offered. In exceptional circumstances, a victim can be moved to a temporary place of safety and perpetrators excluded. Any actions taken must be to the benefit of the individual concerned.
Local councils and their partners are also placed under a duty to create Adult Protection Committees made up of a wide range of interested parties including social workers, health staff and the police to oversee adult protection work and to monitor its effectiveness and report their findings to Parliament on a regular basis.
David Manion, Chief Executive, Age Concern Scotland, said:
"Older people across Scotland welcome this long-awaited legislation which will make it a statutory responsibility to respond to incidents of harm or abuse of an adult who may be vulnerable.
"Scotland is now leading the way by legislating for improved safeguards and responses and is giving out a clear message that the mistreatment of any person will not be tolerated."
Part 1 of the Bill is concerned with adult protection. Parts 2 and 3 clarify aspects of both the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 whilst also making some minor adjustments to the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.
Source : Scottish Exec

Elderly Care at Home gets EU boost

Care at Home for the elderly gets a significant boost with the announcement of
a consortium of 20 partners from European universities, public bodies and private companies to develop improved technology that should allow vulnerable older people to continue to live independently at home.

The Service Orientated Programmable Smart Environments for Older Europeans (SOPRANO) project is part-EU funded and aims to develop IT based assisted living services that promote the independence of older people, improve their quality of life and address the issue of ageing.

Mike Hodges, the Research and Development Director at Tunstall, the private company leading the research project, said: 'Against a background of accelerating demographic ageing across Europe, the latest telecare and telehealth solutions will play a pivotal role in helping to relieve some of the growing pressure on healthcare providers. Tunstall is proud to be leading this cutting-edge project which is addressing these key issues.'

The project will demonstrate how to use telecare technology, Information Technology (IT) and mobile communications to develop new community-based models of care and support. The research hopes to advance global knowledge in remote diagnostics, semantic IT, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) location, and radar and integration architectures. 600 users will test the viability of these technologies in real homes.

The project will have two goals: to develop new ways of integrating assistive technology, telecare and telehealth solutions into users' homes to provide assistance; and to investigate the motor, sensory and cognitive difficulties experienced by older people and the best vision, voice or sensory-based means of communicating with users.

SOPRANO hopes to investigate the development of a fully networked home environment where integrated appliances support users in carrying out their everyday activities, and advanced telecare and telehealth solutions can monitor well-being to ensure that assistance is provided when required.

It is hoped that such low-level, round-the-clock telecare technology will offer a cost-effective alternative to traditional care, while also ensuring users get the support they need in the familiarity of their home environment.'

What such technology systems will never be able to offer though is real face to face meaningful human interaction and for many eldery people this can be the differenec between just living and enjoying a quality life. The development of these technology solutions to the problems of caring for the elderly must be supported and encouraged but we must never forget that the elderly, like the rest of us, need the warmth of human companionship and this is something that more traditional forms of care , at their best, have provided. The challenge is to develop systems of care which can meet these full range of needs.
http://www.tunstall.co.uk/

Elderly care: doctors discriminate says study

Half of doctors discriminate against elderly patients because of their age according to a study of elderly patients with angina. They were less likely to be prescribed a statin to lower their cholesterol, given appropriate tests, be referred to a cardiologistor or be offered surgical treatments. They were more likely to have current prescriptions changed and be told to come back later.

The survey questioned 28 GPs, 28 elderly care specialists and 29 cardiologists from southern England and the Midlands. The study of doctors treatment of the elderly (published in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care)found patients over 65 were managed differently from younger patients.

In the study the doctors were interviewed about 72 fictional patients with varying degrees of heart problemsangina were presented using a specially-created computer programme.

Social Care Organisations fail to employ Learning Disabled

A survey of visitors at a Community Care Live event on Tuesday revealed that only one third of the social care organisations at the event employ people with a learning disability.

The survey was carried out by Avenues, a not-for-profit organisation that supports people with complex needs. It showed that 36% of visitors said they had people with a learning disability working at their organisation, 58% did not, 6% did not know.

9% thought their organisation had employed people with a learning disability in the past, and a number said their organisations did employ people with other disabilities, but not learning disabilities. Some claimed they had not had anyone with a learning disability apply, while others felt commercial firms such as supermarkets had a good track record in this area. A few were unsure what was meant by the term “learning disability"!

Avenues chief executive,Steve James said, “Avenues is proud to say it is in the one third of organisations that do employ people with learning disabilities. Our experience has shown that organisations have to be creative about the job opportunities they offer people with a learning disability and accept the fact that they may need quite a lot of support in the beginning. However the rewards, both for the employee with a learning disability and their colleagues, are worth the time and effort that goes in. I would strongly urge the social care sector to look at this area of recruitment. It would be a shame for social care organisations to be outdone by profit-making companies.”

Avenues is a not-for-profit organisation that provides support to people with complex needs, including learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autism and mental health problems. Our individualised support enables people to meet their needs and express their hopes and aspirations.

Avenues have over 900 staff supporting over 800 people every year, either in their own homes or in registered group homes. For more information about Avenues, visit: www.theavenuestrust.co.uk

CSCI star ratings

CSCI proposals for star ratings can be found here.

Plans by CSCI to develop a star rating system to judge care providers on how well they run their services were recently approved by CSCI Commissioners.
CSCI plans to invite people who use services, providers and councils to help them make sure the system is run properly and checked thoroughly by everyone involved.
A public consultation on star ratings was launched in August and nearly 3,000 people are reported to have supported the use of stars to describe ratings.

A survey of over 1,000 people found 96% want as much information as possible when making choices about services.
Dame Denise Platt said: “These new star ratings will be of significant benefit to people who use social care services, both now and in the future - so that they can make informed choices about the quality of care services in their area.”

CSCI will use a star ratings system ranging from 0-3 and use extra words such as poor, adequate, good and excellent to show what each star means.