Consultation Hub

If you agree with this amendment to increase the higher age limit for persons eligible for continuing care from twenty to twenty-one years of age, from 1 April 2019.  This is the final in the agreed annual roll out strategy to ensure the initial cohort of young people (born after 1 April 1999) remain eligible until the duty to provide continuing care extends from 16 to 21 years of age.

The public consultation received 26 responses from 4 individuals and 22 organisations including from COSLA, local authorities, the Care Inspectorate, the third sector and individuals. Respondents all agreed with the intention of the Draft Order.  We have published the responses with respect to the handling permissions provided to us.

We also invited any others comments on the draft Order and the Continuing Care provision more broadly. Where respondents have offered comment we summarised the key points raised and, where appropriate, offered a response to these concerns in the Consultation Analysis Report which can be accessed here: 

The Continuing Care (Scotland) Amendment Order 2019; Consultation Analysis Report

Of the responses received there was universal agreement that extending the upper age limit of eligibility to twenty-one is the expected and welcomed course of action. As a result, no adjustments were requested or made to the drafting of the Order.  The Draft Order was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 25 January 2019 for scrutiny.  If approved by parliament, this Order will come into force on 1 April 2019 meaning that eligible young people will be entitled to remain in Continuing Care up to age twenty-one. 

 Links:

 The Continuing Care (Scotland) Amendment Order 2019; Consultation Analysis Report

Published Responses:

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish them.

We asked for views on a draft of Scotland’s Forestry Strategy 2019-2029: its vision, objectives and priorities, as well as the ways in which we could monitor progress.

We received a total of 442 responses to the public consultation. 102 (23%) of these were from organisations, with the remaining 340 (77%) submitted by individuals. 216 of the responses from individuals (49% of the total number of responses) were identical and generated as part of a campaign led by Woodland Trust Scotland.

There was general support for the draft Strategy and its content. However, there were also numerous, yet often conflicting requests for changes to be made to the detail, structure and presentation of the document.

We have published non-confidential responses to the consultation and an independent analysis of the consultation responses (links below). Alongside the final Strategy, a report outlining our approach to consultation and explaining how consultation responses informed the final content and structure of the Strategy is available at: https://www.gov.scot/policies/forestry/forestry-strategy-project/.

This consultation set out the rationale for making it a requirement for all members of Boards of Health Bodies to be members of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme. 

We asked you whether you thought the policy should apply to all Board members (both executive and non-executive) and across all Health Bodies.

The consultation ran between 31 August and 23 November 2018.

We received a total of 34 responses from a range of different organisations and individuals.  85% of the responses offered full support of the policy – that all members of Boards of all Health Bodies should be required to be members of the PVG Scheme. 

The Commissioner for Ethical standards in Public Life in Scotland did not give a view on the policy but noted that he would be supportive of the policy as long as it was implemented in a way that remained consistent with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland.

NHS Health Scotland responded that as the organisation will soon cease to exist they did not think the policy should be applied to their Board members.

3 other respondents indicated that they didn’t think that it was necessary to implement this policy for all members, only those who have unsupervised contact with vulnerable groups.

We are now working with Disclosure Scotland to make changes to the relevant legislation which will mean that members of Boards of all Health Bodies will be required to be members of the PVG Scheme.

We are also developing new learning packages for Board Members to raise awareness about the PVG Scheme.