National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain: role profile

Background

The National Advisory Committee on Chronic Pain (NACCP) is intended to provide expert oversight and leadership on monitoring and improving chronic pain services and support for those who experience chronic pain in Scotland.

The existing Committee has made progress in recent years, including the development of the Core Minimum Dataset for Chronic Pain and development of the world’s first clinical guideline on management of chronic pain in children and young people.

In 2019 and 2020 the Committee had carried out changes to enhance its ways of working and to increase engagement with people with lived experience of chronic pain, with further development planned for 2020/21. These efforts were paused owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has identified the impact of chronic pain as a priority area.  It sets out a number of commitments in its Programme for Government intended to improve support and services to deliver better health outcomes and wellbeing for people with chronic pain. This included a review of the NACCP which recommended the development of a role profile for existing and prospective members of the Committee.

Remit of the Committee

The terms of reference have been refreshed and Committee members are expected:

• to advise the Scottish Government on chronic pain to inform effective national policy and service improvement, taking into account available data on service provision, outcomes, and harmful variation
• to guide the improvement of chronic pain management at all levels of health and social care, including the delivery of the Scottish Government’s commitments in the Programme for Government, the recommendations of the Scottish Access Collaborative Design Workshop report on Chronic Pain and the ongoing remobilisation and rebuilding of pain management services during and following the COVID-19 pandemic
• to raise and maintain the profile of chronic pain with the public, NHS and Local Authority senior leadership, and other relevant Scottish Government stakeholders; and
• to oversee pain management content on NHS Inform

Specific requirements of the members

Members will contribute fully and actively to the work of the Committee, both during and between meetings.

This includes:

• a commitment to attending frequent meetings of the Committee and any sub-groups
• providing timely notice if attendance is not possible and ensuring any contributions are provided by other ways in advance
• clearly representing the views of your group/organisation at meetings, and seeking input as required in advance
• providing comments or written contributions to policy proposals, documents etc. in a timely manner in advance of meetings
• availability for follow-up/further discussion with policy leads and other relevant officials
• proactively supporting collaboration with relevant activities, policies and stakeholder groups in your area of expertise
• leading specific activities related to the work of the Committee with the support of the Chair, secretariat and policy leads
• agreeing and delivering against an annual work-plan, including named deliverables, strategic deliverables and key performance indicators
• identifying and sharing opportunities to improve and enhance the work and working of the Committee in line with a Quality Management/Improvement approach

Working relationships and behaviours

The Committee is to be a holistic representation of the wider community/ Members are expected to work in an open and collaborative spirit with their colleagues. This includes the expectation that members will act in line with the best practice guidance in the Everyone Matters: 2020 Workforce vision

This includes:

• care and compassion: ensure colleagues are treated with dignity, respect and compassion. Every member of the Committee is expected to demonstrate consideration, understanding and kindness to each other
• team work: ensure we work together to share complementary skills, knowledge and experience to support the work of the Committee. Recognise the role each member has to play and hold each other mutually accountable for delivering this
• respect and equality: ensure we are respectful in the way we communicate with colleagues, and do not discriminate or undermine each other. We treat each other fairly and with dignity and recognise the value of colleagues.
• honesty: ensure we are open and honest in our discussions. Look honestly at situations and reflect on the actions needed for improvement. We treat all concerns raised without prejudice and we do not act in a manner to damage the reputation of any individual or the Committee as a whole