Scottish Government officials are discussing planning for 2016-17 with NHS boards as part of the annual planning and performance cycle.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30056 on 4 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30056 on 4 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's Local Delivery Plan for 2015-16 contains savings of £60 million within draft/final versions of the financial plan. The draft financial plan was received on 13 February 2015.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30056 on 4 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The quoted statement was made in a meeting with the Scottish Partnership Forum to get their views and input to developing the National Clinical Strategy. As indicated in the paragraph from which this sentence has been lifted, the discussion highlighted evidence that for some types of treatment, better clinical outcomes can be obtained from specialist teams co-located with other necessary services and specialists.

The National Clinical Strategy sets out the supporting evidence for complex specialist services planning and delivery on a population basis. This would mean that, for some services, specialist units might be located within one hospital in a region, but importantly all hospitals would work as a network across the whole region or indeed the whole of Scotland, dependent on the complexity of specialist services to be provided. An example is the introduction of robot assisted surgery for prostate cancer.

This will ensure we continue to deliver world-class services for the people of Scotland.

As has been the case in previous years, all NHS boards will require to achieve efficiency savings in 2016-17. The preparation for this is at the early stages of development, with formal submissions expected as part of the local delivery planning process in advance of 1 April 2016. All NHS boards are expected to ensure that resources are spent in a way that improves the health and wellbeing of the community and delivers best value for taxpayers. It is important to note that efficiency savings are a key component of financial plans, contributing to the overall performance of NHS boards. Boards consider a range of efficiency measures with a view to identifying those that will impact positively on patient care by reducing unwarranted variation in service provision, removing waste and eliminating harm. Efficiency savings are retained locally by territorial boards for reinvestment in frontline services. The combination of increases in funding and local retention of savings, ensure priorities are safeguarded.

Last year (2014-15) NHS boards delivered over £285 million of efficiency savings, equivalent to 3.1% of baseline funding. For 2015-16, NHS boards are forecasting that over £293 million of efficiency savings will be delivered, equivalent to 3.0% of baseline funding.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde routinely provide copies of their board papers, which for the meeting of 16 February 2016 were received on 9 February 2016. These savings are retained locally for reinvestment in frontline services and are in addition to a baseline funding uplift of £103.7 million (5.2%) for 2016-17.

For the current year 2015-16, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are forecasting that they will deliver £59.6 million of efficiency savings.

Integration joint boards will be required to set a budget that allocates their share of the integration funding included within the local government settlement, to meet as a minimum the settlements’ commitments in relation to social care, i.e. in relation to the living wage and changes to the charging thresholds.

The number of (a) private and (b) voluntary/ third sector workers in the care sector in each local authority area is available in the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) annual workforce survey (table 4). This can be found on the SSSC website (http://data.sssc.uk.com/data-publications).

The investment required to meet the living wage in contracted out adult social care services will vary across authorities in Scotland according to local circumstances, for example, the volume and balance of contracted out care and the progress some councils have already made towards payment of the living wage. We would expect a more finely grained analysis of the situation regarding wages and fair work within contracted out care services to be undertaken at integration authority level.