Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives, as outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009.

Additionally, The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 contains duties and provisions in relation to developing and delivering statutory Child’s Plans. Guidance will be developed to support transition throughout the life course within and between services for children that require a Childs Plan. It is good practice for the Child’s Plan to proactively plan for transition and the management of transition. Health boards and partners will be required to develop policies, procedures and practice to meet the duties and provisions prior to them coming into force.

The National Clinical Strategy sets out why the NHS in Scotland needs to adapt in the face of increasing and changing demand, along with significant constraints in terms of workforce and finances. The strategy sits alongside the Health and Social Care Integration and GIRFEC to ensure that there is a comprehensive approach to both improving the health of the population, and the healthcare available.

Its foundation is to provide care as locally as possible through a whole-team, community-based approach which is vital to the future of the NHS, allowing people to continue to be treated close to home, or in their home, in the majority of cases.

SIGN guidelines are distributed within the NHS in Scotland via a network of Guideline Distribution Coordinators in each NHS board. Implementation is the responsibility of each individual NHS board and local ownership of the implementation process is crucial to success in changing practice.

It is not possible to answer, from centrally held information, whether SIGN guidance has directly led to a change in venous thromboembolism (VTE) incidence, the collective name for Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE).

The information relating to which hospitals do not have dedicated transition services from paediatric to adult care is not centrally held.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives.

The national policy regarding age appropriate hospital care for children and young people was outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009. The national policy considered the importance that transfer from paediatric to adult services should be the culmination of a period of planned transition care and emphasises the need for good transition arrangements for young people moving into the adult care sector across all specialities.

The Scottish Government has supported and funded Crohn’s and Colitis UK in the production of “Scotland Leading the Way - a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland”, which seeks support NHS boards in improving care and treatment for all people living with inflammatory bowel disease in Scotland.

The Blueprint makes a number of recommendations for NHS boards in relation to the care of treatment and young people and including the need to have standardised transition to adult services.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to have well-structured transition arrangements in place, which meet the needs of their local population, regardless of where in Scotland the young person lives.

The national policy regarding age appropriate hospital care for children and young people was outlined in Better Health, Better Care: Hospital Services for Young People in Scotland published on 5 May 2009. The national policy considered the importance that transfer from paediatric to adult services should be the culmination of a period of planned transition care and emphasises the need for good transition arrangements for young people moving into the adult care sector across all specialities.

The Scottish Government has supported and funded Crohn’s and Colitis UK in the production of “Scotland Leading the Way - a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland”, which seeks support NHS Boards in improving care and treatment for all people living with inflammatory bowel disease in Scotland.

The Blueprint further reinforces the need makes a number of recommendations specific to this area. A number of trials have taken place across Scotland including virtual and telephone clinics, the trial has meant that patients can avoid long journeys to physical clinics, also ensuring the necessary care could be provided in the appropriate timescale to support the patient.

The need for more access to support, including peer support, is one of the key themes of the “Gaun Yersel” Self Management strategy. The strategy was written by the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) for the Scottish Government from the perspective of people with lived experience of long term conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease.

Through the Scottish Government funded Self Management Fund (which is administered by the ALLIANCE), 24 projects with peer support elements were funded a total of £1.7million during 2013 to 2015. The Scottish Government has committed £2million annually for the three year phase of the Fund (to run from April 2016 - March 2019) and to date £2million has been allocated to projects with peer support elements, of this £613,818 is dedicated to projects that involve young people and peer support.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to respond to the physical and mental health needs of their population. To assist in providing effective, evidence-based treatments, the Scottish Government provides funding to NHS Education for Scotland (NES) to host the ‘The Matrix: A Guide to Delivering Evidence-based Psychological Therapies in Scotland’, an evidence-based guide for NHS boards on effective psychological treatments for a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, which people with effects from inflammatory bowel disease may experience.

Crohn’s and Colitis UK’s report ‘Scotland Leading The Way: a National Blueprint for Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Scotland’, launched with the support of the Scottish Government in June 2016, also contains best practice recommendations related to improving psychological support for IBD patients.

It is for NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services and ensure that they have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of their services and ensure high quality patient care. As part of this, we expect NHS boards to have robust workforce plans and recruitment and retention policies in place which take account of midwifery vacancies and retirements.

We have increased student midwifery intakes for five years in a row including another 4.9% for 2017-18. We are also providing funding of £450k over 3 years to retrain former midwives and nurses through our national Return to Practice scheme. However, we recognise that challenges still remain and we will continue to work with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and NHS Boards, including NHS Lothian, to ensure we have the right number and mix of midwifery trainees and staff.

To make sure our NHS has the right skills mix, we will introduce national and regional workforce planning. On 1 February 2017 we launched the National Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Discussion Document. We are inviting responses to this consultation by 28 March 2017. The Discussion Document will inform the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan, which will be published in Spring 2017. The consultation is available at the following link:

https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/health-workforce/national-health-and-social-care-workforce-plan/

In addition, our innovative midwifery and workforce planning tools - a UK first - have helped to ensure that NHS Scotland continues to meet the RCM recommended midwife-to-birth ratio. Application of the tools is mandatory across NHS boards.

ISD Official Statistics for quarter end March 2017 will be published in June 2017.

At 31 January 2017 there were 1,149 care homes for adults operating.

Of these, 853 were care homes for older people and 296 were care homes for other adults, primarily adults with disabilities. Care homes provide a variety of services and support people who are funded in different ways.

We estimate that there are around 700 Intermediate Care beds across Scotland. These beds are commissioned by individual Integration Joint Boards to provide short-term rehabilitation and reablement in a more homely setting, following an acute episode of care, with the aim or returning the person back to their own home.

Many more care home places are commissioned by health and social care partnerships to support people with a range of needs.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health's State of Child Health report which reaffirms the work currently underway across government to improve child health. The Scottish Government is carefully considering all of the recommendations in the report to identify any further work needed.

Many of the report's recommendations are already being taken forward in Scotland including: rolling out the Family Nurse Partnership to reach every eligible teenage mother in Scotland by the end of 2018; prioritisation and expansion of the health visiting service provided to families; bringing forward a Child Poverty Bill for Scotland; maintaining our commitment to support people in Scotland affected by the UK Government's welfare cuts; providing a Baby Box for all newborn babies; progress in achieving the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly best practice standards; placing relationships, sexual health and parenthood education at the centre of the school curriculum; achieving the target of halving exposure to second hand smoke through the Take it Right Outside campaign five years early; investing in a range of programmes to support and encourage healthy eating; investing in free school meals for all primary one to three children; investing in physical education in schools; exceeding our target of delivering 150 Community Sport Hubs across all local authorities; working on a new Mental Health Strategy which will focus on the earliest and most effective interventions to prevent children and young people from becoming ill; and committing to producing an overarching child health and wellbeing strategy to consolidate all of the actions.