Chamber and committees

Health and social care in Scotland is being integrated to ensure people have access to the right care, at the right time, in the right place, and in particular that people are supported to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as possible.

Over the last two years, NHS Tayside has been reviewing its existing clinical models of care, including its mental health services. The priorities for this exercise have been patient safety and improving quality of care. It is important to recognise that, in relation to mental health, NHS Tayside’s review process is ongoing and that no decision has been made about the future shape of the service.

Since 1 April 2016, the lead role for the planning of mental health services has been devolved to the Tayside Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs), with the in-patient element being hosted in Tayside by Perth and Kinross IJB. Health and social care partnerships must make best use of their resources across health and social care, in communities and hospitals, to ensure people are supported to maximise their wellbeing with the highest standards of care. The Scottish Government is providing support to partnerships, health boards and local authorities as integration is implemented locally and new models of care are developed to better support vulnerable people.

The board is committed to working with the IJBs in taking forward the next steps in identifying a sustainable long-term model for mental health services across Tayside, with public engagement being a key aspect in finding the right solution.

A £1 million initial testing programme is underway with eight sites throughout Scotland testing a range of aspects of the recommended new model of urgent care. Sites are testing new ways of working, including new approaches to leadership and providing new opportunities for multi-disciplinary working.

A further £400,000 is being invested in a technology improvement programme, the first phase of which will focus on improving configuration and enhancing the use of Adastra - the system used throughout Scotland to manage unplanned instances of care during the out-of-hours period.

The learning and results from the initial testing programme, as well as input from our delivery partners and other stakeholders as part of our national engagement programme 2016, will inform the National Delivery Plan for the Transformation of Urgent Care which we aim to publish later in 2016.

Since publishing the strategy in February there have been over 20 engagement meetings with a wide range of clinicians and other stakeholders including NHS boards and integration joint boards, professional bodies and other stakeholder groups.

Information on post-diagnostic support for people with dementia will be published later this year, showing comparative performance across Scotland on the national LDP Standard on post-diagnostic support.

This will show how many people newly diagnosed between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 received a minimum of a year’s worth of post diagnostic support. The information will be available at NHS board, not integration joint board, level.

Since April, IJBs are formally responsible for commissioning dementia services, including post-diagnostic services, in their area. Responsibility for the delivery of those services remains with the statutory body tasked with leading the service in each area and this is determined locally.

The Scottish Government designed a national target to give effect to a guarantee that everyone newly diagnosed with dementia between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016 will have received at least a year’s worth of post-diagnostic support, coordinated by a named link worker. This includes the development of a comprehensive and personalised care and support plan.

Information will be published later this year on comparative performance across Scotland on the national LDP Standard on post-diagnostic support for dementia. This will show how many people newly diagnosed between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 received a minimum of a year’s worth of post diagnostic support.

Part of the mandatory national data set will also show how long people have waited after their formal dementia diagnosis to begin receiving their post-diagnostic service. This information will be available at NHS board, not integration joint board, level.

Information on the number of NHS patients treated as an inpatient or day case in the independent sector in the last 18 months up to December 2015 is published quarterly and available on the Information Services Division website.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-29600 on 21 March 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is taking a distinctive and extensive approach to increasing the capacity and capability of nursing and other disciplines to respond to dementia, and as such there are no plans to introduce or pilot the use of admiral nurses in Scotland through the NHS. Since 2011, the Scottish Government has co-funded, in partnership with Alzheimer Scotland, the provision of an Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Nurse Consultant in all territorial boards to help provide strategic leadership on change and improvement in NHS dementia care. This is primarily in acute care but we are looking to extend this role in other settings.

In addition, we have over 600 dementia champions (with recruitment ongoing for a further cohort of around 100) working across Scotland to support healthcare staff who work with people with dementia as well as three Allied Health Professional (AHP) dementia consultants hosted in territorial boards: NHS Lothian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire and a National Alzheimer Scotland AHP dementia consultant.

Furthermore, everyone newly diagnosed with dementia in Scotland is entitled to be automatically allocated a trained and named link worker to work with the person with dementia and their family for a minimum of a year. This service offer, underpinned by the national target, is still unique to Scotland.

However, dementia UK is currently working with BUPA to roll forward a partnership to boost the number of admiral nurses across the whole of the UK by 10%. This will include the introduction of the first two admiral nurses in Scotland.