Seòmar agus comataidhean

We welcome the report by Kidney Research UK and commend its work to support people with chronic kidney disease in Scotland. A number of Scottish Government clinical advisors and partners participated in the roundtable which informed the development of this report.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving care for people with chronic kidney disease through a number of activities which are aligned with the recommendations set out in Kidney Research UK’s report. We are raising awareness of the symptoms, causes, diagnosis and prevention of kidney disease by providing and promoting information on chronic kidney disease for patients and their families on NHS Inform .

Our Donation and Transplantation Plan was published in 2021 and sets out a dedicated priority to increase living donation and reduce the wait for a kidney transplant. This includes a number of recommendations to improve care, including developing resources and information to promote living donation , changing clinical practice in renal units, increasing direct engagement with patients and their families, and developing new guidance on staffing to support living donation.

We also continue to support the work of the Scottish Renal Registry which promotes excellence in renal care in Scotland including audits on the delivery of renal replacement therapy. The most recent report from registry was published by Public Health Scotland in October 2022 and provides vital information for Health Boards, service managers and individual clinicians to help improve care and standards for people with chronic kidney disease.

Public-facing information about neurological conditions is being developed for the NHS Inform website, to support education and self-management.

New or revised pages have been published on Functional Neurological Disorder, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington’s Disease, Transverse Myelitis, Migraine, Myasthenia Gravis, Post-Polio Syndrome, Epilepsy, Motor Neuron Disease, and on eight types of Muscular Dystrophy. Further pages currently in development include Cerebral Palsy, Ataxia, Tourette’s Syndrome, Multiple Spinal Atrophy, Parkinson’s Disease, Dystonia and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

Through the Neurological Care and Support – a National Framework for Action 2020-25 , we have funded a number of projects which have developed or are developing information to support people to better understand their neurological conditions. 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 for further detail.

I 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. This report provides an update on the progress under each of the five aims in the Neurological Care And Support: A Framework For Action 2020-2025.

Specifically, page 13 of the report details a project we funded to develop principles of good transition across the lifespan of people with neurological conditions, using a range of methodologies.

More widely, Scottish Government will introduce Scotland’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy in this Parliamentary term to ensure there is a joined-up approach to supporting our young people with disabilities as they make the transition to adult life. The scope of the Strategy will be developed through engagement with people with lived experience of transitions in all areas of life, including health care. We will begin progressing external engagement on the Strategy in early 2023.

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.

ScotRail is committed to becoming a menopause friendly employer and has delivered “Let’s Talk about Menopause” training to its Executive Committee and eighty of its senior leaders.

ScotRail designed and delivered training for colleagues in ScotRail and the wider UK rail industry to celebrate World Menopause Month in October 2022 and has plans to offer Train the Trainer sessions with other ScotRail staff. ScotRail’s aim is then to roll out a programme of menopause awareness training across the organisation.

Applications for the Menopause Friendly Accreditation (MFA) are open four times each year and ScotRail’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager is currently in the process of collating evidence to submit with its audit survey which ScotRail intends to do by end February 2023.

In 2022-23 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three information resources to support key workers and carers to guide people with neurological conditions to access Self-Directed Support (SDS).

The resources have been produced in conjunction with Self-Directed Support Scotland and are designed to raise awareness and understanding of SDS amongst three groups who are in a position to support people living with a neurological condition to access it: health and social care professionals, voluntary sector workers, and parents/carers of children with neurological conditions.

The resources were published by the NAoS in January 2023 at www.scottishneurological.org.uk and comprise:

• Self-Directed Support for adults: Information for Health and Social Care Professionals
• Self-Directed Support for adults: Information for the Voluntary Sector
• Self-Directed Support for children: What to Expect - Information for Parents

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.

In 2021 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three new ‘What to Expect’ information guides for carers of people with neurological conditions. These guides include information on carers’ rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and comprise:

• What to expect when you are new to caring
• What to expect from advocacy services
• What to expect when planning ahead

The guides were endorsed by the Coalition of Carers and are available at the NAoS website: https://www.scottishneurological.org.uk

We are currently supporting the NAoS to undertake a project in early 2023 to work with carers centres assessing current resources and identifying gaps that still need to be addressed regarding information, training and signposting.

We know that this is one of the toughest winters in the NHS’s 74-year history and long delays clearly demonstrate the challenge our Health Service is facing.

Delayed discharges continue to drive up A&E waits, which is why we are working with hospitals across Scotland, including Inverclyde Royal Hospital to ensure people leave hospital without delay, freeing up vital beds for those who need them most.

Our £50 million Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative looks to drive down A&E waits through, Hospital at Home and our Out-patient Antimicrobial Therapy service which allows patients to be treated at home or in the community.