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COSLA Guides to Legislation and Guidance PapersCharging Guidance for Non-residential Social Care Services 09/10Further to the COSLA Leaders meeting on Friday 24 May, the attached guidance was endorsed with respect to non-residential social care services. The 2002 Community Care and Health (S) Act gave the then Scottish Executive powers to regulate home care charges in order to achieve a greater level of consistency across Scotland. At that time it was agreed that self-regulation through COSLA would be permitted if that would achieve the policy objective. The guidance has been reviewed once since it was originally issued in 2002, with a revised document being issued at the beginning of 2006. There is an understanding with the Scottish Government that the guidance will be subject to regular review; hence, a review was undertaken during 2008. At the Leaders meeting in February, it was agreed that COSLA would issue guidance on an annual basis, to take account of changes in legislation, finance and local practice. The 2009/10 guidance is attached below. Councils are encouraged to homologate the relevant articles into their local charging policy Click here to download the File (MS Word 281k) Culture Delivers The Scottish Government has launched a new pamphlet – “Culture Delivers” – intended to provide a useful resource for those developing the service plans which lie ‘below the waterline’, and which help achieve the outcomes in the Single Outcome Agreements. Welcoming the new pamphlet, the Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture, Ms Linda Fabiani MSP, said: “The Scottish Government is very pleased to be working in partnership with Councillor Harry McGuigan and CoSLA, to help promote the message that culture has the power to help create a successful and prosperous Scotland. This message is reprised in our new pamphlet, “Culture Delivers”, published today, which offers a number of ideas as to how culture can play an important role in making a positive difference to people’s lives in a number of ways. I hope that the Community Planning Partnerships, and others who have the opportunity to study it, will find the pamphlet helpful.” The pamphlet has been published on the Scottish Government’s own website. Both text and PDF versions may be viewed by clicking on the following link: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/12/22094149 Single Outcome Agreements (SOA) Guidance Feb 2008 This package is designed to provide information and assistance to Scottish Local Government on the development and submission of their Single Outcome Agreements (SOA) to Scottish Government. Click here to download the File (MS Word 960k) Getting it Right for Every Child in Foster and Kinship Care - A Briefing for Members The Scottish and local government’s strategy for kinship and foster care was launched on 4th December 2007. It is part of the overall approach to give every child the best start in life. The strategy focuses on those children and families who are most at risk of disruption. Click here to download the File (MS Word 54k) School Estates Management Good Practice Guide Examples and suggestions of good practice for councils considering a review of their school estate. Click here to download the File (pdf 133k) Disability Equality and Scottish Local Authorities: Access to Services This research examines the processes adopted by local authorities to meet the obligations placed on them by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The research aimed to shed light on best practice in Scottish local authorities. It was not expected that any one local authority would be completely compliant in its procedures and practice. However, the research revealed the progress made by local authorities in moving towards compliance with respect to disability equality. The research was undertaken by Frank Ennis of the University of Strathclyde and was carried out over the 12 months beginning May 2004. The seventeen local authorities that responded to an initial survey of all 32 Scottish local authorities provided the material for this research. Material was also gathered from Access Panels and Disability Groups. The purpose here was to determine the extent to which partnership with local authorities had been established. The main concern of the research was in examining how local authorities were taking steps towards providing access to services for the disabled community. Overall the research concluded that Scottish local authorities had been slow in developing policy and procedures to meet up with their obligations as specified in the DDA 1995. The following causes for this were identified in the research: * Corporate policies intended to advance the cause of disability had in many cases not been set up until after 2000. * The identification of training needs at a service level in many cases was inadequate. Though a number of local authorities had addressed the issue at corporate level, most lacked a training framework that would identify needs at a service level. The absence of training for departmental managers meant that local authorities lacked a key component of an effective training framework. The lack of an inter-departmental working-group to reinforce corporate-service links was a contributing factor. * Access to premises involved carrying out access audits and making necessary adjustments to buildings. While the majority of local authorities had carried out some or all of these audits, the lack of a secure financial commitment meant that the necessary work was not secured in an orderly, structured fashion * Furthermore the report identified a need to ensure that links with groups representing the disabled community were established on a more formal basis. Full details of the research can be found by downloading the file SLA Access to Services available in a PDF format. Click here to download the File (pdf 193k) Frank Ennis can be contacted on ennisfrank@hotmail.com . Guidance to Councils on the application of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 to Elected Members Click here to download Guidance document (MS Word 84k) Protection of Children Scotland Act 2003 Guidance on letting of council premises Aim of the Guidance This guidance has been drafted in response to concerns raised by councils regarding the implementation of the Protection of Children Scotland Act 2003 in respect of lets on council premises. There seemed to be considerable variations in practice from council to council, as well as within councils, in terms of the conditions attached to letting of council premises by organisations providing services for children and/or young people. This guidance is not mandatory. It was produced by an officer working group drawn from a variety of councils and including a representative from the voluntary sector, and is intended to offer assistance to councils in drawing up their letting policies. Click here to download (MS Word 41k) Guide to Local Government Scotland Act (241K pdf) The purpose of this Guide is to provide a brief,easy-to-read guide to the Local Government Act 2003 Act. Published by COSLA. Best Value Equalities Guidance (146K pdf) This guidance was prepared in consultation with the Scottish Equalities Co-ordinating Group and the Equalities Officer Network. It is to assist councils in mainstreaming equal opportunities within the new statutory framework provided for Best Value, Community Planning and a Power of Well-Being. The guidance uses “equalities” in its widest sense encompassing the statutory grounds for service provision, the new grounds of sexual orientation and age for employment, and the areas also covered in the Annex to the Scotland Act. The recommendations are summarised in the first part of the document. For Best Value the recommendations cover the need for high level commitment from members and officers, the inclusion of equalities in strategic objectives and service plans. The recommendations also cover public performance reporting, information on the levels of service up-take, the equalities impact of service reviews and the development of procurement strategy. Community planning partnerships are recommended to identify action to be undertaken to encourage equal opportunities; use impact assessments; engage with equalities groups and develop the partnership’s own equalities capacity. The recommendations also cover sharing information on equalities groups; and monitoring and evaluating performance. Councils are recommended to assess all proposals for the use of the Power to Advance Well-Being in terms of their impact on equalities. |
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