PDE Column, 16th March 2008 – Invisible Children, Hospital Acquired Infections, Policing, Young Offenders

Invisible children

No one listening to recent news reports of the tragic death of little Brandon Muir could fail to be to whole heartedly saddened.
We must consider how these tragedies can be avoided, including looking to our Scottish Government to take responsibility for the invisible children suffering from drug-abusing parents.
Currently we don’t seem to know how many children are living with a parent who has a serious addiction. Every child living with a parent with an addiction needs to be identified and have the right to a risk assessment, and ongoing support.
Every parent or parents with an addiction should be assessed as to their parental capability. If the child lacks basic necessities, is possibly at risk of being exposed to violence or shows signs of physical neglect then we must act.
As far as I aware no single Cabinet Secretary has responsibility for drugs and children. If one can step forward to accept that clear responsibility and accountability for this issue will we know that the way can be opened for serious consideration about the improved protection of children.

The fight against Hospital Acquired Infections

Buddies will know of my recent successful campaigning for hospital by hospital reporting of Hospital Acquired Infections including C-difficile.
I welcome the recent decision to appoint a Chief Inspector of Hospital Hygiene – but it needs to be part of a much more comprehensive approach to cut infections.
My party colleagues in the Parliament proposed an independent Commissioner as part of our 15-point action plan, drawn up with the assistance of Professor Hugh Pennington. The role must be fully independent and have enough clout to tell ministers when they are failing.
The Scottish Government must go further by giving the new inspector the independence and clout to drive progress across the whole of the NHS, co-ordinate policy and tell ministers of failures needing to be addressed.

Policing
I am pleased to learn of new community police officers locally in Renfrew. Two have already started at the end of February and another two later this month. This will bring the total complement to 14 community officers covering the Renfrew and Gallowhill area, and is in addition to the core group of Police officers.
Yet there is still a real disappointment that the manifesto pledge made at the last election by today’s Scottish Government, to provide 1000 extra police officers by 2011, is set to fail. Recent figures published show that there are only 410 more officers in Scotland since May 2007 with 197 of those officers recruited in Strathclyde alone by money from local authorities rather than the Scottish government.
Also according to Scottish government statistics between 600 and almost 800 officers leave the police service every year either through retirement, resignation or resignation through ill-health.

It seems clear that there is now a postcode lottery on police recruitment. In Strathclyde, some councils are using their own funds to recruit the extra police they need. In Grampian the police have had to cut their recruitment targets by 60 because of a Scottish government failure to fund fully the pension shortfall. So there will be many communities in Scotland asking why their area is already falling short.

The last Scottish Government increased police officer numbers by 1500 when in power. We know what it takes to achieve that kind of change.  On leaving power at May 07 there were 16,265 officers in Scotland. The SNP pledge will not be complete until there are 17,265 officers.

Young Offenders

A recently published HMCIP report on young offenders in adult establishments shows the conditions that young offenders are kept in but it also shows the scale of youth offending. Many of these young people are serving sentences for violent crime. We need to ensure there are adequate facilities for young prisoners to be appropriately kept out of the community to ensure public protection. We have a situation where new prisons are waiting to be built but with no work going on. Community Service Orders taking months to even start and no adequate investment. Let’s get this sorted.