Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government, through its Chief Scientist Office, provides funding to support clinicians working within NHS Scotland to carry out research. The funding provided through this researcher support scheme was £12.7 million for 2014-15.

The Chief Scientist Office funds the NHS Research Scotland Fellowship Scheme. This scheme provides clinicians working in the NHS with a three year fellowship, during which two sessions per week are reserved for research purposes. To date over 70 fellows have been appointed. £1.6 million has been allocated to the scheme for 2015-16.

While neither of the above funding streams are specific to any one clinical speciality, clinicians working in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are open to applications for such.

The Scottish Government provides funding of approximately £475,000 per annum for the Scottish Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Network. The core remit of the network is to support research specifically into dementia and neurodegenerative diseases (including Parkinson’s disease) in the NHS.

The Scottish Government provides funding of approximately £475,000 per annum for the Scottish Dementia and Neurodegenerative Disease Research Network. The role of the network is to increase the amount of research in dementia and neurodegenerative disease (including Parkinson’s disease). The network works across the 14 geographical NHS Scotland boards to facilitate the timely, appropriate and effective recruitment and follow-up of patients to studies across the dementia and neurodegenerative disease portfolio.

The Scottish Government, through the Chief Scientist Office, is currently funding a clinical academic fellowship in Parkinson’s disease. The title of the fellowship, awarded to Dr Angus MacLeod at the University of Aberdeen is ‘Identification of prognostic factors and development of prognostic models in Parkinson’s disease using long-term data from a large, incidence-based cohort’. A total of £192,000 has been committed.

Through commitment 16 of the 2013-16 national dementia strategy, we are working with others to identify and address barriers to timely diagnosis and effective care, treatment and support for people with dementia specifically in the following groupings: learning disabilities; early onset dementia; chronic conditions; sensory impairment; and in black and ethnic minority communities.

We know people with Down’s syndrome have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s dementia at an earlier age than the general population. Our world-leading post-diagnostic guarantee for everyone newly diagnosed with dementia, which provides a minimum of a year’s worth of dedicated post-diagnostic support co-ordinated by a named and trained link worker, benefits people with Down’s syndrome and dementia by providing personalised and holistic care to support their specific needs.

We have had discussions and will work with Down’s syndrome Scotland and other organisations to further address the needs of this group, including through an equality impact assessment on the Local Delivery Plan standard which underpins the post diagnostic support guarantee.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families and carers in Scotland.

As part of the commitment to support the delivery of The keys to life, the 10 year learning disability strategy, grant funding has been provided to Down’s Syndrome Scotland’s ABC groups in financial year 2015-16. The learning disability policy team will continue to work closely with Down’s Syndrome Scotland as a key delivery partner over the next few years to implement The keys to life implementation plan.

The review of guidance on the administration of medicines is not yet complete. The administration of medicines in schools is extremely complex in nature. It is necessary to ensure that the guidance is appropriate and considered appropriately. It is intended that the revised guidance will be published for consultation prior to final publication, and that this consultation will take place in the summer this year.

The new website is consumer facing and acts as a hub, bringing together information on various strands including debt advice, employability, housing issues, access to ethical and affordable lending, borrowing and saving, and even help with budgeting.

The aim of the website is to signpost those in need to the most appropriate area of support. It therefore links out to a range of trusted stakeholders who offer further information and advice, such as Citizens Advice Scotland, Money Advice Scotland and Shelter Scotland; it also links to credit unions promoting the benefits of savings and affordable lending.

A key part of the new website is a financial education module with budgeting and savings tools from a number of the stakeholders. The objective of this section is to educate people about saving as a way to keep on top of their financial worries. The website also allows users to search for their local credit unions and find out about the products offered by them, and to search for approved money advisers.

A marketing campaign has been developed to raise awareness of the Scotland’s Financial Health Service website and to encourage people to visit the new site for support and advice. This has included partnership work with stakeholders, as well as PR and digital and TV adverts. The site has recorded 30,340 unique visitors since its inception.