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We have already or are in the process of setting up a number of Implementation and Monitoring Groups which will oversee delivery of the commitments in the Strategy and developing consensus about future developments.

Each of the groups is responsible for monitoring progress, identifying barriers to implementation, providing advice on delivery and ensuring that the commitments are met. They will also have a role in considering the agenda for the end of the Strategy period. The groups are:

Mental Health Delivery Team - overall deliver of the Strategy and Data and Knowledge (Commitments 1, 14, 26, 27, 28 and 36)

Psychological Therapies (Commitment 13)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Commitments 7-12)

Primary Care and Common Mental Health Problems (Commitments 6, 15-22)

Rights, Recovery, Families and Carers, Peer to Peer and Employability (Commitments 2-5 and 29)

Community, Inpatient and Crisis Services (Commitments 23-25)

This approach is a flexible one which allows us to bring in different expertise across the timeframe of delivery of the Strategy. Some of the commitments are relatively easy to map out at this stage e.g. commissioning a review, but others are more developmental and implementation will depend on what emerges from the early stages of the work e.g. development of learning disability child and adolescent mental health services.

We will be updating the Mental Health Strategy pages on the Scottish Government website to include information about the Implementation and Monitoring Groups, their membership and meetings, and about progress on each of the commitments. In addition, we intend to hold an annual stakeholder engagement event where stakeholders who are not involved directly in the Implementation and Monitoring Groups can hear in more detail about delivery of the commitments, and have an opportunity to comment and provide feedback.

In preparation for reporting on the Psychological Therapies HEAT Target, ISD Scotland are collecting data on a monthly basis from NHS boards. Currently boards are at different stages in the format and completeness of the data they are able to report on, although all boards are working hard to have systems in place.

We will make the first publication reporting on progress towards the target later this year, when we expect the data will be of sufficient quality and sufficiently consistent and complete to allow meaningful interpretation and comparison.

Work is ongoing to ensure that NHS boards have the right measures in place to deliver, in a manner which ensures not only achieving the waiting time target, which is in itself important, but also puts in place sustainable service improvement and benefit to patients. This involves work around a number of areas, including capacity, information systems and service redesign.

Legislation will be introduced to Parliament before summer, that will place health boards and local authorities under a duty to work in collaboration with key stakeholders to plan and deliver nationally agreed outcomes, and we would expect these to include the third sector.

The integration of health and social care will facilitate integration of commissioning budgets for adult services. This will create a single commissioning budget from which partners will commission improved outcomes for adult health and social care, including integrated services for people with learning disabilities. Local partnerships will be developed to meet local needs and will include third sector organisations, where appropriate.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is a relatively new organisation which has gone through significant change and restructure over the past 18 months. Some staff have experienced a period of uncertainty as they move into new structures and teams and have experienced changes in leadership and management reporting lines. Since the staff survey took place, support has been provided for new teams to help them build team relationships and support leaders and managers in taking forward their new teams. These statements reflect a culture of transparency and a strong commitment to improving internal ways of working.

This statement relates to work required to further embed the values and behaviours’ of Healthcare Improvement Scotland which are aligned to the 2020 Workforce Vision and does not relate to accusations of workplace bullying. Mechanisms are being put in place to ensure consistent cascading of information; further develop leadership and management and in engaging staff in difficult times and this will be reflected in the organisation’s Staff Governance Action Plan.

Five members of the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Executive Team met on 9 April 2013 at the Scottish Health Service Centre, an NHSScotland resource which is part of National Services Scotland. The cost was £277.

Like many organisations, Healthcare Improvement Scotland regularly survey staff to improve the way they work. The last survey, which was conducted in December 2012 shows improved scores in all areas. Some staff made comment around improving internal communications, which the organisation is taking seriously and working to ensure information is cascaded in a timely and consistent way.

The Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) staff survey and responses to it were intended for internal use and reference and as such there was no intention to publish the results. The key themes of the survey have been shared with the HIS Partnership Forum and Corporate Management Team and will be incorporated into the Staff Governance Action Plan for 2013-14. All HIS staff will be fully engaged in the implementation of the Staff Governance Action Plan.

Everyone with dementia, including those with learning difficulties are entitled to receive care, treatment and support in line with the Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland (2011). People with dementia and a learning difficulty should receive a multi-disciplinary assessment of their care needs, including attention to removing any barriers to effective communication between the person with dementia and service providers. The Promoting Excellence dementia skills framework, which is designed to help services meet the dementia standards, requires staff working at “Enhanced” level and above to understand the potential impact of a diagnosis of dementia on people with learning difficulties.

The new national HEAT target on post-diagnostic support provides the commitment that all people newly diagnosed with dementia from 1 April 2013, including those with a learning difficulty, will receive a minimum of a year’s worth of detailed and personalised care, treatment and support, coordinated by a link worker.

People with learning disabilities have a higher risk of developing dementia compared to the general population, with a significantly increased risk for people with Down syndrome and at a much earlier age. As part of the second National Dementia Strategy, to be published in June 2013, we intend to undertake a specific piece of work looking at the need for national action around linkages between dementia and other disabilities and chronic conditions; and the need for national action around early onset dementia.

Dentists in receipt of the dental bursary and unable to secure a vocational training (VT) place on graduation have a number of options, including deferring NHS dental work in Scotland for a year following graduation, or securing employment as an assistant in an independent practice which provides General Dental Services (GDS).

A dentist who is unable to secure a VT place following graduation will not therefore be required to repay their dental bursary, provided they did not turn down a VT place on geographical grounds, and they begin NHS dental work within one year of graduation.