UWS Government Publications Blog

This report was published in June 2011.

“We published Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy almost exactly a year ago and this is the first annual report from the strategy’s Implementation and Monitoring Group, illustrating progress made over the last twelve months.

In concentrating the strategy on 5 key challenges – including its two key improvement areas of post-diagnostic support and improved service response in general hospital and eight key supporting actions, we are working with our partners in a very focussed way. This approach is designed to drive and deliver tangible and measurable change and improvement in dementia services over an initial three-year period.

The end of year one of the strategy’s implementation is marked by the publication of two major documents: Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland and Promoting Excellence.

Standards of Care is designed to empower those with dementia and their families and carers in asserting their rights; to inform the commissioning and provision of services; and to inform scrutiny and inspection of services. The standards articulate our national consensus on what level of quality those with dementia should expect in local services and we will engage in national and regional consultation on their contents and on how they translate into practice.

Promoting Excellence delivers a comprehensive skills and knowledge framework for all health and social care staff and its large programme of implementation includes updating professional qualifications and targeted educational initiatives in key care areas.

Transforming dementia services is one major part of our wider shared endeavour to reshape care for older people. Key to this endeavour will be the delivery of an integrated system of health and social care across Scotland – to ensure that our older people are at the centre of service delivery. This process is already underway, with the Change Fund helping local service redesign around more personalised, community-based, anticipatory and enabling and re-enabling principles.

The Dementia Strategy is playing an important role in moving the wider agenda around older people’s services forward; its success over the next two years will be extremely important in demonstrating how integrated services can deliver better quality of care for those with dementia and their families and carers.”

This report was published in June 2011.

“In June 2010, the Scottish Government launched Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy. NHS Education for Scotland ( NES) and the Scottish Social Services Council ( SSSC) then developed Promoting Excellence: A framework for health and social services staff working with people with dementia, their families and carers to support delivery of the aspirations and change actions outlined in the strategy.

The NES/ SSSCPromoting Excellence framework details the knowledge and skills all health and social services staff should aspire to achieve in relation to the role they play in supporting people with a diagnosis of dementia, and their families, and carers. The NES/ SSSC framework has been designed in a way that recognises the existence of various sector (and professional group) specific standards and frameworks, for example: the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework; the Social Services Continuous Learning Framework and the National Occupational Standards for Health and Social Care.

• This framework supplements these existing frameworks.
• This framework applies to all health and social services staff who have contact with, and provide support, care, treatment and services for people who have dementia, and their families and carers.
• This framework is aspirational and future focussed – meaning it is not a just a description of what we do now – it is what we aspire to do in the future to support delivery of the aspirations and change actions outlined in Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy.
• This framework details the knowledge and skills that will inform new ways of working for all health and social services staff to ensure we enable people with dementia, and their families and carers, to maximise their rights, choices and health and wellbeing at all stages of their unique dementia journey.”

This report was published in June 2011.

“People with dementia retain the same rights as anyone else in society but the nature of their illness means that they often have great difficulty in protecting their own rights.

There is still stigma and discrimination against people with dementia and they and their carers often feel, with some justification, that they are treated with less respect, dignity and understanding than other members of society.

These standards relate to everyone with a diagnosis of dementia in Scotland regardless of where they live, their age, the supports they receive or the severity of their illness. This includes younger people, people with a learning disability and people with rare types of dementia. They apply to people living in their own homes, care homes or hospitals, especially general hospitals. For all the standards, we have given guidance about how they can be measured.

These standards have been developed to help people with dementia and their carers understand their rights, and how these rights can help make sure that they receive the support they need to stay well, safe and listened to.

The two main sources of information which underpins these standards are:

1 The Charter of Rights for People with Dementia and their Carers in Scotland. ( >1)

2 What people with dementia and their carers in Scotland have identified as being important to them and what they want from services.

To ensure continuous improvement, the standards should be used in conjunction with Promoting Excellence: A framework for health and social care staff working with people with dementia and their carers. ( >14)

The framework outlines in detail the skills and knowledge health and social care staff should have depending on the role they play in supporting people with dementia.”