FUNDING ENSURES ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR ALL

Christina McKelvie MSP has welcomed the announcement of a new package of student funding by Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop, which will see Scotland’s mature or “independent” students are to benefit by over £1000.

The SNP MSP for Central Scotland hailed the news which ensures education is an option for all and sees those most affected by recession gaining the biggest helping hand with grants of £1000 introduced for those over 25 or who have previously been in employment and £2 million set aside to support students with children. Independent students have previously only had access to loans.

The Scottish Government has also agreed with the NUS to increase the amount available to all students through loans. In total 75,900 students will have access to increased support.

Ms McKelvie, who is a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee, said:
“Today’s announcement ensures education under an SNP Government is accessible to all.

“That is why we scrapped the student tuition fee introduced by Labour and that is why today’s announcement will see funding directed to independent students and student parents.

“A £1000 grant for 14,000 independent students, £2 million for childcare as well as access to the same loan support for independent students as for young students will make a real difference to many hard working older students and student parents who are turning to education to ensure job security in the future.
“Importantly this money will help those studying for HNC’s at our colleges as part of retraining in response to the recession, as well as those taking degrees at our universities.

“Along with the increase in support for young students this is great news for students in Scotland’s colleges and universities who are working hard to gain the education and skills that will help them see out this recession and build jobs for the future.

“Today’s announcement is a real step forward, ensuring independent students have the funding to access education and putting the role of our colleges and universities at the heart of economic recovery.”

The announcement is a £30m package for the 2010-11 academic year. This potentially benefits full-time students on HNC/HND, undergraduate or teacher training courses – 75,900 in total.

A £1,000 grant for mature (“independent”) students. Students are in this category if at the start of their course they are over 25, have been supporting themselves for three years, or are married/in a civil partnership. This will benefit 14,000 students. They had previously only been entitled to loans. This is particularly important at a time of economic difficulty when people may be considering retraining.

A £2m increase in support for childcare. This will be paid to colleges and universities themselves to distribute to students with childcare responsibilities. This was requested by NUS following reports of unusually high strain on the existing funds in the last year. The Scottish Government and NUS will now explore moving to a nationally-standardised entitlement model and away from discretionary payments by institutions.

£622 extra up-front payment. The basic student loan will be increased by £442. The additional loan top-up, which is particularly targeted at students from the lowest income backgrounds (<£18,300 per year), will be increased by £180. This loan will also be extended to independent students for the first time, giving them equality with parentally-dependent students in this regard.

In total this increases the core student funding package to £5,852 for the next academic year. This is an increase from £4,625 for independent students and £5,230 for parentally-dependent students. This is the largest one-year increase in up-front support since devolution.

Central Scotland MSPs Linda Fabiani and Christina McKelvie joined First Minister Alex Salmond and the families of servicemen and women this week at an ecumenical service in Motherwell Cathedral to honour members of the armed forces killed or injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking after the service, Ms Fabiani, whose home constituency of East Kilbride has a strong armed forces tradition, said:

“This has been an extremely moving occasion which has powerfully highlighted the bravery of our servicemen and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and the scale of the sacrifice that has been made by so many of them.

“Like other Members of the Scottish Parliament, some of my constituents have paid the ultimate price, such as Corporal John Harrison of East Kilbride, who was killed just last month during a heroic rescue mission in Afghanistan.

“It is so important that, as a nation, we show appreciation and respect for the families who have borne the loss of loved ones, for the servicemen and women who have returned home, sometimes with terrible injuries, and for those members of our armed forces who are still in harm’s way every day.”

Fellow Central Scotland MSP, Christina McKelvie said:

“Regardless of what we think about the rights and wrongs of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, our servicemen and women deserve our gratitude.

“We must never forget or take for granted the sacrifices that they have made, which is why I hope that today’s service will be only the first of its kind.

“A big part of the respect that we owe to our armed forces must take the form of adequate care and support for veterans, which is why I am very pleased that the Scottish Government put in place a range of measures, from significantly increased finding for the charity Combat Stress to a guarantee of access for injured veterans to state-of-the-art prosthetics from NHS Scotland.”

The Service of Remembrance which took place in Motherwell Cathedral on Thursday 29 October was the first large ecumenical service of its kind in the UK.

The Scottish Government published a paper of commitments to Veterans and Armed Forces Communities in July 2008. It can be read at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/07/CommitmentsPaper2008.

S3M-05094 Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Better Value for Public Purse— That the Parliament congratulates the Royal Mail on securing a £17 million contract with the Scottish Government for postal services; notes that this is a contract across 89 Scottish public sector organisations, thus guaranteeing the Royal Mail the custom from this wide range of bodies for the first time; considers that the delivery of this contract by Procurement Scotland will save the public purse nearly £3 million per year, and further considers that the contract may help to protect the Royal Mail in the face of the hostility shown to it by the UK Government, including the deregulation of postal services nearly four years ago and epitomised by the comments of Pat McFadden MP in the House of Commons on 20 October 2009 that “Competition exists in the postal service, and it will not go away and cannot be wished away. I want a Royal Mail that is fit to win in that market, rather than one that simply wishes competition to go away. The most fundamental challenge to Royal Mail is not competition from other mail companies but competition from other communications technologies. That must lie at the heart of the response to the threatened dispute.”

MSP condemns new rules forcing asylum-seekers to travel 400 miles for screening

Christina McKelvie MSP has written to the Home Office to voice concerns about new rules which will force people who arrive in Scotland seeking asylum to travel 400 miles to the Asylum Screening Unit in Croydon to make their asylum claim. The changes were introduced by the UK Border Agency this month.

In her letter to Phil Woolas MP, the UK Minister for Borders and Immigration, the SNP MSP for Central Scotland described the changes as an additional trauma for vulnerable people which, far from simplifying or speeding up the asylum claims system, will cause further delay and expense.

Commenting today, Ms McKelvie said:

“This is a wholly unnecessary and retrograde step. Forcing tired, bewildered and destitute people to make an eight hour, 400 mile journey from Glasgow to Croydon just to lodge an initial asylum claim is simply tough-guy posturing with no useful purpose.

“Many asylum seekers, who have children or health issues, have been able to be screened in Glasgow until now. It has always been an anomaly that not everyone who arrives in Scotland was screened in Scotland – to now force everyone to make the journey to Croydon makes even less sense.

“I am particularly concerned about the impact this will have on unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum. Are these highly vulnerable young people really to be expected to make this arduous journey alone before they can even make the claim that will allow them to access extremely basic financial support?

“This rule change will do nothing to improve any part of the asylum system for anyone involved in it.

“The Home Office should think again, scrap this senseless backwards step, and start using the facilities that are already here to screen all asylum seekers who arrive in Scotland, in Scotland.”

Notes:

As of 14 October 2009, all in-country initial asylum applications must be made at the UKBA’s Croydon centre.

A person is defined as an asylum seeker whilst they go through the process of claiming asylum. Under the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution in a safe country. On applying for asylum, a person’s claim is assessed by the UK Home Office against the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. If their claim is successful they are recognised officially as a refugee. Only then do they have the right to work.

Until such time as an asylum claim is lodged people have no access to financial support.

According to Scottish Refugee Council figures, in July to September this year, a total of 68 people arrived at Scottish Refugee Council offices looking to claim asylum. Of those, 36 had to be supported financially to get to Liverpool and 32 were screened in Glasgow, and entered the asylum process here.

S3M-05046 Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (Scottish National Party): Bad Science at the UK Border Agency— That the Parliament notes with dismay that, despite widespread condemnation by the scientific community, the UK Border Agency has announced that it will continue with its nationality-swapping Isotope analysis and DNA-testing process, or so-called Human Provenance Project, intended to establish the race and national origin of people seeking asylum in the United Kingdom and specifically to identify Somali nationals; notes that Sir Alec Jeffreys, the pioneer of DNA fingerprinting, has described the project as “wildly premature, even ignoring the moral and ethical aspects”; further notes that an editorial in Nature magazine describes the project as “scientifically flawed, ethically dubious and potentially damaging to science”; believes that, even if these test results are not used to determine the outcome of individual asylum claims, they are nonetheless invasive, of questionable purpose and open to potential abuse, and calls on the Home Office to cancel the Human Provenance Project forthwith.

Christina McKelvie MSP has written to directors at Hamilton company Paton Plant Ltd to congratulate them on being shortlisted for the highly sought-after Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) Awards (VIBES), which are given to Scottish companies which demonstrate the business benefits of environmental best practice.

Paton Plant Ltd is a Hamilton-based business which supplies and builds portacabins and other portable buildings. It is one of forty shortlisted nominees who will be narrowed down to eight winners, who will receive their awards from Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham at a ceremony in the Scottish Parliament on 28 November.

The VIBES awards are now in their tenth year and are regarded as a signifier of the very best environmental practices in business.

Central Scotland MSP Christina McKelvie said:
“It is great news for Hamilton that a local business is amongst those setting the standards for green business practices in Scotland.

“I hope that other local businesses will be inspired by Paton Plants’ example to adopt good environmental practice and enter the VIBES awards in future years.

“I congratulate all those at Paton Plants who have worked for this achievement and wish them the very best of luck at the awards ceremony on 28 November.”

For further information about the VIBES awards go to www.vibes.org.uk

S3M-5021 Christina McKelvie: End Detention of Children in the UK—That the Parliament is disturbed to note the findings of a team of paediatricians and psychologists published in Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal, which found that 73% of the children held in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre whom they examined had developed clinically significant emotional, mental and physical health problems since being detained, including weight loss, sleep problems, bedwetting and speech regression; believes that these findings vindicate the Scottish Government’s insistence on pursuing alternatives to detention for asylum-seeker families with children; hopes that the community-based pilot launched jointly by the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and the UK Border Agency in May 2009 means that no more asylum-seeking children will be detained in Scotland; further notes, however, that, according to Home Office figures, 470 children have been detained this year in England and Wales, and calls on the UK Government to follow the Scottish Government’s example in introducing community-based alternatives to detention throughout the UK and end the practice of detaining children as soon as possible

SNP government action against infection paying off for patients

Christina McKelvie MSP has commended NHS Lanarkshire on the significant progress it has made in reducing rates of infection in hospitals.

The most recent reports on healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) from Health Protection Scotland show that there have been major falls in the national infection rates since the SNP came to power in May 2007, with rates of C.difficile falling by 44% and rates of MRSA down by 26% across Scotland.

NHS Lanarkshire was singled out as one of the health boards in which HAI rates have “decreased significantly.” MRSA rates in the county’s hospitals are now considerably lower than they were when the SNP government came to power and C. diff infections have fallen steadily over the past five quarters.

SNP MSP for Central Scotland Ms McKelvie has welcomed the news, saying it is good news for patients in Lanarkshire.
“The Scottish Government’s determination to drive down hospital infection rates is reaping rewards across Scotland, but I am particularly pleased to see the significant progress that has been made by NHS Lanarkshire.

“The efforts of NHS Lanarkshire staff to keep hospitals infection free and ensure the best treatment for patients must be commended.

“There will always be more to do to keep infection at bay but together we have made great strides forward. I look forward to seeing infections in Lanarkshire falling even further in the months ahead.”

Notes:
1. The Quarterly report on the Surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Scotland, April 2009-June 2009 notes that: “Comparison of the yearly rates for the periods July 2007-June 2008 and July 2008-June 2009 shows that rates have decreased significantly in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Fife, NHS Highland, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian and NHS Shetland”
2. The rate of MRSA infection in NHS Lanarkshire in the quarter following the SNP’s election to government (Jul-Sep 07) was 0.216 per acute occupied bed day (AOBD). In the quarter Apr-Jun 09, this had fallen to 0.109 per AOBD.
3. The C.diff rate in NHS Lanarkshire has fallen steadily over the past year and is significantly lower than when the SNP came to power. The rate is now 0.64 cases per 1,000 population, compared to 1.62 per 1,000 in 2007/08.

The Scottish National Party’s Christina McKelvie MSP, Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Central Scotland region, is supporting the Breast Cancer Campaign’s ‘wear it pink’ campaign. Christina said:

“I am delighted to be supporting ‘wear it pink’ day and the Breast Cancer Campaign. October is to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month and ‘wear it pink’ at the end of the month is a one day event which will see individuals, groups and families wearing pink and donating £2 each to the Campaign.

“Over 4,000 women and 20 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in Scotland every year. It is the most common cancer for women in Scotland, accounting for nearly a third of all cancers diagnosed in women.

“So this is a massively important issue. Breast Cancer Campaign funds many research projects in Scotland, which aim to beat breast cancer by funding innovative world-class research to understand how breast cancer develops, leading to improved diagnosis, treatment, prevention and cure.

“I urge as many people as possible to help with that fight, donate to breast cancer research and wear some pink on 30 October.”

Scottish Government will pay re-registration fees to help qualified staff help with flu pandemic

Christina McKelvie MSP has urged nurses and midwives whose professional registration has lapsed to take advantage of a Scottish Government commitment to meet the re-registration costs of qualified staff who choose to return to work to help the NHS cope with any worsening of the H1N1 influenza outbreak.

Nurses and midwives whose Nursing and Midwifery Council registration has lapsed in the past four years will have the opportunity to re-register for free, allowing them to be available to the NHS in the event of a surge in the flu pandemic.

Welcoming the move, Central Scotland MSP Christina said:

“This simple, practical solution by the Scottish Government could have a very significant effect on the ability of the NHS to manage if there is a worsening in the H1N1 flu outbreak.

“NHS Scotland staff have coped brilliantly so far but should there be a surge in infections, it will be of enormous benefit to our health services to have a cohort of qualified professional staff ready to step in if they are needed.

“This is also a great opportunity for qualified nurses and midwives who may have been considering a return to practice but have been deterred by the costs of professional re-registration.

“Having that burden removed from them will allow them to expand their available career options as well as giving them a chance to make a contribution to Scotland’s health services when they may need it most.

“I would urge any nurses and midwives who meet the free re-registration criteria to grab this opportunity while it’s available.”