News

SPPC response to Health & Sport Committee inquiry

The SPPC has submitted a response to the Scottish Parliament Health & Sport Committee's call for written views in relation to palliative care.

The Health and Sport Committee is currently holding an inquiry into Palliative Care in Scotland, which intends to focus on three key areas:

Access to Palliative Care

What are the barriers to consistent access to Palliative Care and how can those barriers be overcome? When Palliative Care provision is based on needs, how can access to appropriate Palliative Care provision be assured across different conditions, locations (such as at home, or hospice) and prognoses? What are the benefits and potential drawbacks of having a named healthcare professional for each patient/family in receipt of Palliative Care?

The initial conversations about palliative and end of life care.

Is this the access point to the care pathway? When should it take place? Who with and what should be asked? What is the role of carers and families? Are heath and care professional adequately supported to hold these conversations?

Research

The Committee has also agreed to undertake some focussed research into international comparisons of measurement of data used in palliative and end of life care including: What indicators are used to measure the access to and the quality of Palliative and end of life care in other countries? Which indicators have proven effective and why, based on international experiences and research?

The SPPC response:

• outlines what it is as a society that we are trying to achieve in this field.
• attempts to establish some terminological and conceptual clarity about palliative and end of life care
• explores the role of conversations
• assesses current access to palliative and end of life care in Scotland
• identifies some of the barriers to access
• proposes a series of actions for improving palliative and end of life care are proposed.

The full SPPC response is available here: SPPC response to Health and Sport Committee call for written views relating to palliative care.

Scottish Government Engagement Paper

The Scottish Government has produced an engagement document to support the development of a Strategic Framework Action for Palliative and End of Life Care.

The Scottish Government has invited comments and contributions on the engagement paper, and on the development process in general, by Monday 31 August 2015.

Tell Us Once: a service that can help people at times of bereavement

For many people, dealing with all parts of government, especially when reporting changes, can require them to repeat and verify the same information to several departments, agencies and parts of local authorities.

People are often at their most vulnerable at times of bereavement and a recent death can directly impact on the amount and type of benefit and services people may receive from local or central government. Tell Us Once (TUO) is a cross-government service that enables people to inform parts of local and central government just once of a death.

After the service was initially piloted in a few local authorities it has gradually been rolled out across Great Britain. As of today there are 375 local authorities in Scotland, England and Wales offering the TUO service (92% of all local authorities). These cover 89% of the population.

A customer survey was completed in July 2013 which found 98% of people felt their overall experience of the service was good and they were willing to recommend it to others. Over 40,000 citizens used the service in April 2015 alone.

In Scotland, the service is available in the following locations: Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll & Bute, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Eilean Siar, Falkirk, Fife, Inverclyde, Midlothian, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth & Kinross, Scottish Borders, Shetland Islands, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, West Dunbartonshire and West Lothian. Most recently Dundee City and East Lothian have also started to offer the service.

Work is ongoing to negotiate with three Local Authorities not already offering the service to allow them to provide the service to their citizens.

Rod Burns, Deputy Registrar General for Scotland said:

"The move forward with delivering the Tell Us Once service in Scotland has been a really good example of partnership working across government. Likewise, National Records of Scotland wanted to improve the customer experience - as well as that of registrars. Feedback from registrars delivering Tell Us Once has been universally positive, from their own daily perspective, alongside the service making a significant improvement to citizens’ experience."

Tell Us Once Delivery Partnerships (TUODP) are working to raise awareness of the TUO service across relevant groups and a customer flyer is available to support this.

The project team would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to get involved in this awareness activity, and can make a supply of the flyer available. They are also available to attend regional forums to do a presentation to explain the service and explore ideas on how to raise awareness across Scotland.

They are also keen to hear:

• Any ideas on how to promote the service in your regions
• Do you use information packs for families ahead of bereavement? If so, could the flyer become part of the suite of documents within those packs?

For more information please contact Michael Murphy, Tell Us Once Delivery Partnerships.

From Worms, Butterflies and Veils to Outcomes

Bookings are open for this year's Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Annual Conference, taking place on Wednesday 23 September 2015 at the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh.

Featuring a mix of high quality speakers and delegate interaction the event will provide:

• an opportunity for learning relevant to practice and workplace
• a chance to network, to share information and good practice
• challenging perspectives and energising inspiration

More information about the conference line-up, the call for posters, and how to book is available here: SPPC Conference 2015.