Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2017
I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Government. I commend Bruce Crawford for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am encouraged by the commitment across the Parliament to improving the quality of life of people who are affected by neurological conditions, which have a profound effect not only on the individuals but on their families and carers, as Bruce Crawford said.
I assure members that the Government is fully committed to improving the lives of people who live with neurological conditions, and welcomes the Sue Ryder report, which is a valuable contribution to the debate on how we can make things better for people with neurological conditions. As a Government, we have an excellent relationship with Sue Ryder, and we have been working closely with the organisation over the past few years. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport will visit the Sue Ryder centre in Aberdeen in January to continue discussions on our shared goals. Perhaps Bruce Crawford can go at the same time.
As Lewis Macdonald said, I am also familiar with the excellent care that Sue Ryder provides at Dee View Court. I am a frequent visitor there and have held constituency surgeries in the premises. I was very pleased to note that the fundraising campaign to expand the centre’s facilities recently reached the £1 million mark. That is testament to the high quality life-changing care that Sue Ryder workers provide. In the interests of transparency, I declare an interest, in that I provided a supporting statement for its bid to the Wolfson Foundation for funding for the extension. I am not sure whether that has been revealed yet.
I am pleased to say that the Government is making good progress on a number of the fronts that Sue Ryder highlights in its report. We listened to Sue Ryder and others who called for changes to charges for personal care, and we announced in the programme for government that we will take steps to extend free personal care to all those under the age of 65, thereby fully delivering on the commitment to introduce Frank’s law. That means that up to 9,000 people who are currently in receipt of personal care will no longer be liable to pay charges for the care that they need. That will assist many people with neurological conditions including motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
We are also making good progress on improving the data that is collected on neurological conditions. The data will assist NHS boards and integration authorities, thereby informing better service planning that supports people who are living with neurological conditions. Our aim is to have that data set in place by spring 2018.
We are also committed to reviewing the neurological standards: Healthcare Improvement Scotland is in the process of developing new standards of care.
We know from statistics that people who are living with neurological conditions mainly access primary and community care services. We therefore expect the new standards to apply in a range of care settings across health and social care. Graeme Dey admirably described the excellent level of care that Sue Ryder provides in Angus. I hope that those high standards of care will be replicated elsewhere because, as Jeremy Balfour said, most people really want to live at home or in a homely setting.
The standards will be developed by a project group that will—crucially—include people who live with neurological conditions. It is vital that policy makers and healthcare professionals consult and listen to the people who have lived experience, because they are the experts.
We also note Sue Ryder’s call for the new standards to be accompanied by a programme of measurement and improvement. I assure members that the Government is considering that call closely, and we will be working with partners over the next year to explore what such a programme would look like and how it could be delivered.
Sue Ryder has also been calling on the Government to develop a national approach to neurological conditions. Again, we have listened to that call. The Minister for Public Health and Sport recently announced that work has started on Scotland’s first national action plan on neurological conditions. The new plan will support the development of integrated, expert neurological and rehabilitation services, and will focus on the needs of individuals living with neurological conditions, across health and community services. Gillian Martin mentioned the work of Dee View Court. In addition to providing in-patient services, it provides excellent outreach services. It has recently introduced outreach services for people living with MS, which has had a fantastic and positive effect on those who have taken part.
As part of our work, we will undertake a programme of engagement with health and social care partnerships to ensure that they are sufficiently sighted of and supported on the aims of our national action plan. The plan will incorporate the new national neurological standards that are being developed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, and will be designed to drive improvements for people in a range of healthcare settings.
To ensure that our approach to the new plan is as open and collaborative as possible, we are seeking to co-produce it with clinicians, the third sector and people who live with neurological conditions. We have also commissioned the Health and Social Care Alliance and the Neurological Alliance. They will, working in partnership, engage with people living with neurological conditions so that we learn and understand their experiences of accessing services, as well as their priorities for the future. I know that Sue Ryder and other third sector bodies will continue to feed into that important work. The draft plan will be produced by next summer and consulted on before being published later next year.
The perspective of lived experience is central to any work that we take forward in this area. I hope that we will be able, as the work progresses over the next year, to rely on support from across the chamber, and that all members get involved and promote their ideas.
I offer my continued support for the work that Sue Ryder does to represent and to support people with neurological conditions. I again confirm that the Government is fully committed to improving the lives of such people throughout the country.
Meeting closed at 18:14.