Chamber and committees

The scope of the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board encompasses diversity in its wider sense, and this includes disabled people. However, the primary focus will be on women in the early part of the programme, with the learning from improving the gender balance of boards being used to increase participation of disabled people and those with other protected characteristics.

The Scottish Government works with a range of key partners to ensure that the views of disabled people and staff are heard. Our focus is on working across the Scottish Government to develop a disability delivery plan which will contribute to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and our Shared Vision on Independent Living. Within the Scottish Government we ensure that the views and opinions of all our minority groups of staff, including our disabled staff, are considered by consulting regularly with our Staff Diversity Networks and our Diversity Champions.

The information held on costs to date by the Scottish Government will be published shortly. I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 55691).

The inquiry has now received the last of the responses to warning letters, however, the report will not be finalised until the inquiry Chairman has considered each of the responses and made any necessary amendments to the report.

As it is for the inquiry Chairman to decide the timetable, as soon as this final stage has been reached the Chairman has undertaken to inform me of the timetable for publication and I will inform Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

The Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain recommends a multidisciplinary approach to the delivery of care and treatment for people with chronic pain. As part of the data collection exercise carried out by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), boards were asked to provide information on current staffing in line with the specialities recommended within the model. The findings of the HIS report, Chronic Pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?, note that in some board areas not all of the recommended specialities were provided within a dedicated pain team.

While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality healthcare in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

It is essential that clear care pathways are in place to ensure that people with chronic pain receive all elements of the care they need.

All NHS boards are required to include chronic pain improvement within their Local Delivery Plans for 2014. Progress will be monitored by the Scottish Government through the Annual Review process. The HIS report provides a benchmark from which boards can measure improvement and boards should take cognisance of the findings and its recommendations in the planning and delivery of services for people living with chronic pain.

Dependent on the issues raised as parliamentary questions arise, the policy directorate(s) contribution is determined on a case by case basis.

In 2012-13, the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £128,555, providing four whole-time members of staff, and non-pay costs of £161,254, which provided for:

Development of the Care Experience survey tool and Patient Opinion subscription

National Learning Session 1 and additional meeting costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning session.

In 2013-2014 the money allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative was split between pay costs of £187,689 providing four members of staff, and non-pay costs of £328,712 providing:

Care Experience survey tool support and development, Patient Opinion subscription and programme evaluation

Nation Learning Sessions 2 and 3 and additional meetings costs

Travel and subsistence including Island NHS Board travel costs to learning sessions.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-21177 on 28 May 2014 which sets out the Scottish Government position on staffing for chronic pain services. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

£289,809 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2012-13, with £175,000 allocated by the Scottish Government and £114,809 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

£518,082 was allocated to Healthcare Improvement Scotland to implement the Collaborative in 2013-14, with £482,843 allocated by the Scottish Government and £35,239 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The allocation to Healthcare Improvement Scotland for 2014-15 has yet to be agreed, but is likely to be similar to the 2013-14 allocation.

Further allocations have been made to NHS boards to support their participation in the person-centred portfolio, including the Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative. Allocations have also been made to NHS Education for Scotland for a national training and workforce development plan to support the portfolio, and to the Health and Social Care Alliance for the People Powered Health and Wellbeing programme, which brings third sector expertise to the implementation of the Collaborative.

As advised in my response to the earlier question (S4W-20958) to which the member refers, the local chronic pain Service Improvement Groups/Managed Clinical Networks have also made a commitment to publish plans on their relevant page of the national chronic pain website.

The aims of the Person-Centred Health and Care Collaborative are as follows:

Raise the profile of person-centred approaches to care across Scotland including staff health and wellbeing.

Develop and test a range of evidence-based interventions and approaches designed to improve person-centred care.

Focus on what can be done now to improve services.

Provide reliable opportunities to personalise support for every person all of the time.

Encourage sharing of ideas and approaches between people who use services and people who provide them.

Promote the use of approaches for obtaining feedback from people who use services.

Use feedback from people who use services to drive improvement.

Provide a framework to measure improvement.

Participating staff from across NHS Scotland will be able to demonstrate how they have introduced new approaches to health and care and how they are using feedback from people to identify and implement improvements to care. The Scottish Care Experience Survey Programme will also be a measure of change and improvement.