Ending HIV transmission in Scotland by 2030

Future leadership and accountability

HIV Transmission Elimination Strategy Implementation Group for Scotland

We suggest that the recommendations in this proposal should be taken forward by the creation of a new steering group to oversee and drive delivery, co-ordinate national outcomes and support NHS Boards/partners with local actions. This will provide oversight to review progress and emerging evidence to adjust interventions to end HIV transmission as well as working with and co-ordinating key partners to further develop actions. The recommendations in this proposal have been made without prior commitment to any new funding and against the background of existing limitations in service capacity. It is recognised that access to additional resources will be stretched given the wider financial pressures and priorities linked to a range of budgetary challenges. The new steering group would be well placed to provide advice on relative priorities and costing to progress actions that cannot be delivered through existing mechanisms.

The collaborative approach established by the short life HiTEOG incorporating third sector partners, lived experience and other nations should continue to underpin the work of this group. We recommend that this group is closely aligned with Public Health Scotland and links directly with existing structures for national SHBBV leadership located within the Scottish Health Protection Network to provide governance. It would also be advantageous to work with academic partners with a record of leadership and research in this topic area, to provide additional expertise, to help review monitoring and evaluation plans, to support future research and innovation and to disseminate outcomes to other settings and countries.

The proposed HIV transmission and implementation group should be supported by the Scottish Government SHBBV policy team and will provide regular updates detailing progress towards ending HIV transmission in Scotland to the Minister for Public Health, Women's Health and Sport. The Minister will proactively update the Scottish Parliament on progress by Parliamentary statement.

The SHBBV policy team will ensure that work of the strategic and implementation group is co-ordinated with other areas of Government policy including (but not limited to) the next iteration of the SHBBV Framework [Ref 15] [Ref 16], drug-related harm [Ref 33], mental health [Ref 41] and the Women's Health Plan [Ref 42]. There will also be opportunities to align strategic objectives with the global HIV Fast Track Cities initiative [Ref 34] by working with COSLA (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities). COSLA and the Scottish Government are the joint sponsors of Public Health Scotland where the monitoring and evaluation of elimination progress will be incorporated.