The Scottish Government plans to issue the strategic commissioning guidance on palliative and end of life care this winter.

The Scottish Government is supporting the development of locally owned improvement and implementation plans through the commissioning of additional improvement support, support for a new educational framework, and guidance for developing plans that take account of local needs.

The Scottish Government plans to issue the first annual learning and improvement report into palliative and end of life care in spring 2017.

The National Implementation Advisory Group met for the first time on 3 June. At this meeting they identified subject matter experts to lead on each of the commitments outlined in the Strategic Framework.

The Clinical and Care Governance Framework for integrated Health and Social Care Services in Scotland provides the ranges of professionals and staff involved in the planning and delivery of integrated health and social care services with clear governance arrangements which identifies their roles, responsibilities, actions and accountabilities. In addition one of the frameworks central principles places an emphasis on empowering people to use their experiences to shape, monitor and improve the safety and quality of their care.

The Scottish Government is working to ensure that health economic expertise is available to Health and Social Care Partnerships to support them in developing and testing improved care processes.

While the Scottish Government has no current intention to develop a national dementia-prevention plan, it retains a concerted national focus on promoting good public health and helping to reduce the risk ill-health and illness (including dementia) in key areas such as smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, improved dietary choices and increasing exercise.

The Scottish Government endorsed the Blackfriars Consensus Statement and its focus on continuing collaborative effort on addressing potential dementia risk and protective factors at an individual and population level.

We also recognise the complexity in identifying connections between lifestyle factors and those risk and protective factors, not least because of the increasing understanding among researchers, clinicians and others about the number of dementias and differentiation between those dementias.

The information is not held centrally.

Individual GPs are responsible for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of their patients. In addition, GPs may signpost/refer patients who require non-medical support to community and third sector services but often they do not have the capacity and knowledge to do this appropriately. Therefore, the Scottish Government has committed to recruiting 250 community Links Workers in GP practices to ensure that patients in disadvantaged areas receive the support they need.

The following table details the total number of clinical negligence payments made across NHSScotland in each year since 1999:

Source: NHS National Services Scotland

The number of compensation payments made in any one year does not reflect the year in which the incident took place. The number of cases settling from year to year varies due to some claims taking several years to conclude. This can be down to disputes around liability; the readiness for both sides to negotiate a settlement and the access to legal aid. However, the length of time taken to settle cases is reducing, due to a number of factors including more rigorous case management by the Courts.