Meeting of the Parliament 06 December 2023
I have been trying to go round and listen to hospices to hear what they have done. Sharon Dowey discussed what is happening in Ayrshire, and there is a lot of innovation there. Rhoda Grant talked about what Highland hospice is doing with its phone lines. I have also spoken to St Margaret’s hospice in Marie McNair’s constituency about the ambulance service that it is providing. We are looking at all that, and it is about understanding the breadth of services that hospices are providing. I have been trying to listen and learn about that.
In planning for the future, we must be cognisant of the challenges of the present. I understand the financial pressures that hospices face, and I have shared with Scottish hospices the financial challenges that we as a Government face. As Rhoda Grant rightly highlighted, there are differences across the sector, which I am examining.
On 17 August, as many people have said in their speeches, I wrote to the Scottish hospice leadership group and Hospice UK to inform them that, unfortunately, their request for £15.5 million was not affordable, given that the Scottish Government is facing the most difficult financial situation since devolution. My reason for sending that letter was to have a level of honesty with them and be able to start discussions, which was incredibly important. It is also important to reflect that it is the responsibility of integration joint boards, including locally elected representatives, to make informed decisions on how best to resource services, including hospice services, to meet the needs of their local communities, given the budgets that are under their control.
However, I have also been clear that we are keen to support the hospice sector where we can. As many members mentioned, yesterday, I met representatives from Scottish hospices and health and social care partnerships to discuss in more detail the challenges that hospices face. We shared a draft national framework to support a more consistent approach to local governance, commissioning and resourcing between integration joint boards and independent hospices. It was clear from the discussions not only that there were some strong relationships between health and social care partnerships and independent hospices but that we all need to do more to promote and support those relationships. That includes local authorities, health boards, health and social care partnerships and Government. Bob Doris and Sharon Dowey emphasised the importance of that collaboration.
I welcome the open, frank and honest discussions that we had yesterday. We agreed on the need for more clarity about roles and responsibilities, nationally and locally, in relation to strategic planning for palliative care, and more specifically to commissioning hospice services. The representative of one of the health and social care partnerships said that they would bring the discussion to their meeting next week. That is positive. We have raised the issue and health and social care partnerships are listening—I hope that it will now rise up their agendas.
On 12 December, we have a specialist palliative care meeting, and there will be more meetings with health and social care partnerships in the new year. I think that the hospices and the health and social care partnerships welcomed that open dialogue yesterday. I have asked my officials to reflect on the issues further, particularly through the development of new national framework guidance.
We are also developing the new palliative care strategy, which prioritises work to address leadership, responsibility and accountability for all palliative care across a complex landscape of partnerships and relationships. I hope that the strategy will be published in 2024.