Adult learning disabilities - Annual Health Checks National Implementation Group Minutes: January 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government Officials

• Representative for NHS Highland

• Representative for NHS Shetland

• Representative for NHS Fife

• Representative for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

• Representative for NHS Ayrshire & Arran

• Representative(s) for NHS Lanarkshire 

• Representative(s) for NHS Grampian

• Representative for NHS Borders

• Representative for NHS Western Isle

• Representative for NHS Dumfries and Galloway

• Representative for NHS Forth Valley

• Representative for NES

Apologies

• Representative for NHS Ayrshire & Arran

• Representative for NHS Lothian

• Scottish Government Official

 

Items and actions

Introductions

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. There were new members who had joined the meeting or provided cover for other members, who introduced themselves.

Updates from the Scottish Government

Ministerial letter 

The Chair updated the group regarding the letter the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport will be issuing to Health Board Chief Executives to highlight the importance of the delivery of annual health checks. The letter will be issued in due course and a copy of the letter will be circulated around the Group.

National data publication

Scottish Government (SG) Officials advised the Group that the national data of the number of eligible people identified for an annual health check, along with the number of health checks offered and completed up until 31st March 2024 was published on the SG Health and Social Care analysis web page.  

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-annual-health-checks-for-people-16-with-learning-disabilities/

The SG team are now working towards the next data collection up until 31st March 2025 and will be in touch with the group in due course about this.

SG Officials informed the Group that SG are keen to increase informal data collection via the Group to provide updates to policy team and Minister throughout the year. A survey gathering information up to the end of January will be issued to the group for completion.

Refreshing the structure/outputs of the Implementation Group

It was suggested that it might be beneficial to review the remit and membership of the Implementation Group  to ensure it continued to meet needs in the context of progress with the implementation of Annual Health Checks.

There was some concern from Members that this wasn’t the right time to change the current structure of the Group. SG confirmed that no changes would be made without consultation with the Group.

It was advised that SG are looking into routinely publishing the minutes of the group going forward.

Action plan from SG policy team on areas of work for coming year

SG officials spoke about recent interactions with individuals with lived experience who provided feedback on their experiences of health checks. It was explained that SG are keen to create more resources for individuals to help understand the whole process of a health check.

SG Official updated the Group following a meeting with the Chair of Inverclyde Adult Support and Protection Committee who offered to come along to a meeting of the Group to discuss how the Independent Adult Protection Chairs can assist in terms of Health Boards LD registers.

Any other business

There was a discussion around recruitment into roles delivering health checks.

Date of next meeting

Thursday 13 February 2025.