Chamber and committees

As well as action being taken to improve the use of digital technology across health and social care in general, as set out in our Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 , digital technology has been used by a significant number of the projects we have funded to support delivery of the aims and commitments of the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-2025 . These include training resources for staff; patient and carer information; self-management tools that enable engagement with healthcare professionals before and after appointments; data gathering and healthcare surveillance systems; and engagement with service users using video technology.

I further refer the member to the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025 – Midpoint Progress Report , which was published on 13 July 2022. The report contains case study examples of innovative projects we have funded which use digital technology to better integrate services and neurological care provision.

We have also published practical guidelines for health professionals on conducting virtual appointments in neurology, covering use of different technologies and their suitability for assessing a range of neurological conditions: Digital Consulting in Neurology | TEC Scotland . We delivered an online seminar for Allied Health Professionals to support the launch of this guidance.

We worked with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to facilitate an online learning event in August 2021 to raise awareness of and build confidence amongst health and social care staff in Anticipatory Care Planning for people with neurological conditions.

This was attended by over 280 health and social care professionals working with people affected by neurological conditions, including specialist nurses and Allied Health Professionals.

The event explored how the principles of good Anticipatory Care Planning can be adapted for different neurological conditions, including for purposes much broader than end of life care.

We created a Neurological Anticipatory Care Planning webpage with HIS featuring useful tools for professionals and videos of the webinar presentations: ACP and neurological conditions - ihub | Health and social care improvement in Scotland - Anticipatory Care Planning and Neurological Conditions

Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care supports the remobilisation and recovery of health and social care services and sets out priorities for recruitment, training and retention. We anticipate that the Strategy will be used by workforce, service and financial planners across Health and Social Care at all levels.

Through this Workforce Strategy, and the NHS Recovery Plan, we are investing in staff so that they have the right skill mix and career progression opportunities.

Through our National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions, we are identifying priorities to strengthen the neurological workforce alongside the National Workforce Strategy, Remobilisation Plans and Rehabilitation Framework. We have scoped neurological workforce priorities and work has commenced to address these with a focus on nursing, allied health professionals (AHPs), neuropsychology and neurophysiology.

A Transforming Roles paper on Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) was published in 2021. Through the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, an expert group has been reviewing how existing CNS competencies for neurological conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease and Parkinson’s align to Transforming Roles with a view to identifying challenges or barriers to accessing training to develop and sustain this workforce.

We are testing with NHS neurology services in the West of Scotland, a workforce capacity planning tool for Allied Health Professionals that has been developed through the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Excellence in Care programme to help ensure staffing levels are in line with safe staffing legislation. An AHP Education & Workforce review has been completed with recommendations from that review being published early this year. Thereafter work will commence on an implementation plan.

We are undertaking work to better understand specialist service provision for people in Scotland with neurological conditions, through which we aim to develop an approach to ensure reliable information and workforce data is available and informs actions.

This will consider existing roles, specialities, subspecialties, and developments in advanced Health Care Assistants, key workers and third sector speciality regarding neurological care. The process will also align with relevant commitments from the Neurological Framework, Transforming Roles agenda and the National Workforce Strategy.

In 2019, we published a Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

The aims include improving the provision of co-ordinated health and social care and support, developing sustainable workforce models and ensuring high standards of person-centred care.

Since October 2020 we have we have awarded £2.1 million across three rounds of funding to 35 projects by NHS Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and third sector organisations working to achieve better outcomes for people living with neurological conditions.

I refer the member to the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025 – Midpoint Progress Report , which contains details of work to support personalised models of care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13690 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

We have recruited a multi-disciplinary cross-agency working group, including a broad spectrum of individuals involved in planning and commissioning services, to develop and implement a quality assurance programme for the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. This has been led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and will support health and social care providers to identify what they are doing well and where they can improve.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of good practice and improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions.

We are also in the process of engaging with local leads in all Scottish health boards and Health & Social Care Partnerships, and exploring with them local priorities and scope for establishing leadership groups and a national practice sharing forum for neurology.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13716 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Through the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , Scottish Government and the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) are improving referral pathways. The CfSD continues to work with neurological services to support the appropriate adoption of Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT) which ensures patients receive the right care in an appropriate setting, and Patient Initiated Review (PIR) which puts patients at the centre of their care.

The CfSD is working with Public Health Scotland towards capturing data in relation to ACRT and Discharge PIR, which will provide a better understanding of the scale, spread and potential further opportunity of these approaches.

The CfSD Neurology Specialty Delivery Group are developing a number of GP fact sheets for common neurological symptoms designed to support clinical triage by ensuring patients access the correct pathways in timely, robust and appropriate manner. These resources are intended to support good communication between secondary and primary care. They have been developed by a multi-Board expert group of primary and secondary care clinicians and are currently being prepared for national use.

Through our Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 we are also funding condition-specific pathway work, in particular regarding Functional Neurological Disorder and migraine.

This work was agreed in February 2020 however was subsequently paused due to capacity issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be further considered by the National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions alongside our emerging priorities for implementation of the commitments within the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-2025 .

Commitment 13 in the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-2025 relates to the support of research into neurological conditions

Action to support Commitment 13 of the Neurological Care and Support: Framework for Action 2020-25 is detailed in the response to Parliamentary Question S6W-13711 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers