Regional Consultation Events: Palliative Care Education Framework

NHS Education for Scotland is hosting a number of regional consultation events on the draft of an education and development framework to support palliative and end of life care for the health and social services workforce. They are seeking representation from NHS Boards, Integration Authorities and partners from Universities, Third, Social and Independent sectors; Leaders; Service/Locality Managers; Learning and Development Leads across the sectors; and individuals who have an interest in, and are involved in providing palliative and end of life care specifically in the community, care homes and the acute sectors. Event dates are listed below:

• Royal Victoria Hospital, Dundee with VC access from Perth Royal Infirmary: 2 November, 2pm
• Forth Valley Royal Hospital, 9 November, 2.30pm
• Borders General Hospital, 10 November, 2pm.
• Queen Margaret Hospital,Dunfermline, 16 November, 2pm
• University Hospital Crosshouse, 16 November, 1pm
• St Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh, 17 November, 2pm
• Crichton Hall, Dumfries, 18 November, 1pm
• IET Teachers Building, Glasgow , 21 November, 1pm
• Musselburgh, 23 November, 2pm
• Alona Hotel, Motherwell, 24 November, 1pm
• Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel, Glasgow, 1 December, 1pm
• Forrest Grove House, Aberdeen with access from Montfield Hospital, Lerwick, 2 December, 2pm.
• VC event: VC enabled coming from CFHS Inverness, Stornoway and Uist & Barra Hospital. Inverness/ Western Isles. Other sites on request. 5 December 2pm.
• Inverness, 6 December, 2pm

To check details or to book a place at one of these events, email Helen Mcdougall by 28 October.

Scottish Government's Programme for Government 2016-17

The Scottish Government has published A plan for Scotland 2017, the Government’s Programme for Scotland.

SPiCE integration brief

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPiCE) has published a briefing on the integration of health and social care.

Advice note: prioritisation process and strategic commissioning

The Scottish Government has published an advice note on prioritisation process, to support Statutory Guidance for Strategic Commissioning Plans.

Parliamentary Questions

The answers to the following parliamentary questions have been published on the Scottish Parliament website:

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made developing the two indicatos on end of life care to be used by health and social care partnerships. (S5W-02458)

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government on what basis the two indicators on end of life care to be used by health and social care partnerships will be most effective in improving care. (S5W-02460)

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Primary care briefing

The Scottish School of Primary Care has published a briefing on Palliative and Anticipatory Care.

End of life care for older LGBT people

The National Council for Palliative Care in England has published Being Accepted Being Me: understanding the end of life care needs for older LGBT people. The document is intended to help health and social care staff and volunteers to learn more about listening, understanding and responding to the unique needs of LGBT people.

Sharing current Scottish Practice

The SPPC Annual Conference in 2015 featured 38 poster displays, sharing work and research underway across Scotland. Each month, our Sharing Current Scottish Practice blog focuses on the content of a few of these posters. This month, we focus on:

• The Role of the Palliative Care Occupational Therapist in the Non-Pharmacological Management of Breathlessness
• The tide is turning.......
• Upskilling generalists in knowledge and skills in palliative care - a celebration of achievements
• Volunteering: what does it mean to children's hospices?
• What Key Elements will feature in the Ayrshire Hospice of the Future?
• Winding Road to Enhance Patients Journey
• Working Together to Promote Meaningful Connection, Hope and Job Satisfaction through the Namaste Care Programme (developed for people with advanced dementia)

The SPPC Sharing Current Scottish Practice blog provides an opportunity for people to share examples of current Scottish palliative care practice that might be of interest to the palliative care community more widely. If you know of work underway that might be relevant for sharing on our website, please get in touch.

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Scottish Atlas of palliative care

The University of Glasgow End of Life Care Studies group has published the Scottish Atlas of Palliative Care. The document aims to provide up-to-date information on the levels and character of specialist palliative care in Scotland; wider summaries of palliative care development in Scotland over time; and details of available publications, reports, policy statements and guidelines relating to palliative and end of life care in Scotland.

National End of Life Care Intelligence Network

The National End of Life Care Intelligence Network has published a round-up of information about the latest data tools and updates on end of life care in England. This includes details of a range of products launched by the Dementia Intelligence Network and NEoLCIN; a new edition of the Minimum Data Set; new indicators on death in usual place of residence (DiUPR) in the End of Life Care Profiles; and a clinical epidemiology webinar series.

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Participation Toolkit

The Scottish Health Council have recently updated their Participation Toolkit. The toolkit has been compiled to support the NHS to involve patients, carers and members of the public in their own care and in the design and delivery of local services.

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To Absent Friends Festival 2016

To Absent Friends, a people's festival of storytelling and remembrance returns this Autumn, from 1-7 November. The festival gives people across Scotland an excuse to remember, to tell stories, to celebrate and to reminisce about people who have died. Born from a desire to reduce the social isolation of people who have been bereaved, the festival is now in its third year. Information about the festival and how to get involved is available on the To Absent Friends website.

New Strategy for SPPC

SPPC is about to start developing a new organisational strategy. Since we developed our currently strategy 3 years ago much has changed: the publication of the Scottish Government Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care and the arrival of Integration Authorities are two important examples. Now is a good time to revisit important questions about how the SPPC can best work over the next 4 years to improve the experience of death, dying & bereavement in Scotland. We want to get your views, and will be doing this through constituency group meetings, one to one meetings, an online survey and consultation. Our engagement with members and stakeholders will focus on the role of the SPPC, rather than revisiting the wider challenges facing palliative care which we covered extensively in Grasping the Nettle last year.

New Member of Staff

We are delighted to welcome Barbara Kimbell to the SPPC staff team. Barbara will be working as Project Manager on the Building on the Best programme. This UK-wide programme, funded by Macmillan, aims to improve palliative care in hospitals. Barbara will be managing the Scottish arm of the programme and working closely with colleagues in Lothian, Tayside and Glasgow. Barbara has a background in health promotion and palliative care research. Most recently she has been researching the needs of people with advanced liver disease and developing an intervention to help improve anticipatory care planning and quality of life in this patient group.

Annual Conference 2016

Over 220 people attended the SPPC Annual Conference on 22 September. If you missed the event, you can view film footage and presentations of plenary speakers on our website. A summary of some highlights from the day is available in this article on ehospice by Caroline May. Poster presentations from the day will be available shortly to view online.

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Under pressure – The growing strain on cancer carers

Macmillan has published Under pressure – The growing strain on cancer carers, which explores some of the pressures on cancer carers across the UK and the effects of these on health, finances and working lives.

Potential new cross party group on end of life choices

Friends at the End and George Adam MSP have held a meeting at the Scottish Parliament with the intention of establishing a Cross-Party Group on End of Life Choices (ie assisted dying/assisted suicide).

In the media

The SPPC does not undertake a comprehensive media monitoring service. Listed below are some of the stories relevant to palliative and end of life care that have appeared in the media over the last few months. For more media coverage relating to palliative and end of life care, check out the eHospice website.

BBC News: Scottish end of life care atlas published

eHospice: Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care conference 2016

The Scotsman: Quality of life can be worth more than extending life at all costs

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To Absent Friends Supper

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...in each edition of Update we try to end with something a little bit thought-provoking or different...

The King’s Fund is publishing a series of short essays that take a step back from the challenges currently facing the NHS to explore a range of hypothetical scenarios for the future of health and care. What if antibiotics stopped working? What if every patient in the NHS had their genome mapped? What if people owned their own health data? Check out the essays here: The NHS if...

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