National Review of Eating Disorder Services Implementation Group: final report

3. National Review of Eating Disorder Services Implementation Group

In Summer 2021, former MSP Dennis Robertson, who has campaigned for greater awareness of eating disorders for many years, and Dr Charlotte Oakley, who was previously the Clinical Lead of Connect-Eating Disorders in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and who co-led the National Review, were invited to Co-Chair the Implementation Group.

In August 2021, the Implementation Group was established and met for the first time to develop, through consultation, the early approach for taking forward the recommendations from the National Review of Eating Disorder Services.

The aim was to ensure that stakeholders, through collaboration and engagement, were empowered to provide their input, experience, and expertise to play a leading role in the delivery of the recommendations.

Membership of the Implementation Group covered a range of professionals across the eating disorder services landscape in Scotland:

• Dr Joy Olver - Consultant Psychiatrist and North of Scotland CAMHS Tier 4 Network Consultant Psychiatrist
• Dr Helen Smith - Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Dr Stephen Anderson - Royal College of Psychiatrists and Review Lead for the National Review of Eating Disorder Services
• Dr Fiona Duffy - Consultant Clinical Psychologist NHS Lothian and Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh
• Dr Paula Collin - Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead, NHS Tayside
• Dr Fiona Calder - NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Head of CAMHS
• Johnathan MacLennan – NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Head of Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Dementia
• Dr Lesley Pillans – Associate Specialist in the Eden Unit, NHS Grampian
• Dr Annabel Ross - Representative for The Royal College of GPs
• Diane Kane - Occupational Therapist, NHS Lanarkshire
• Fiona Huffer - Chief Allied Health Professional West Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership
• Dr Karen McMahon - Clinical Lead of Connect ED Service, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Mirin Craig - Represents the Mental Health Nursing Forum Scotland, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Connect-ed and Nurse Consultant in Psychological Therapies, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Susan Hynes - North of Scotland Regional Tier 4 Lead Nurse / Network Manager
• Gerry Donnelly - Tertiary Eating Disorder Specialist Service, NHS Lanarkshire
• Ellen Maloney - Lived Experience Lead
• Abigail Reynolds - Lived Experience Lead

As described by the National Review's recommendations, the Implementation Group aimed to:

• take note of the feedback and data generated by the Mental Welfare Commission and the National Review, and use this as the basis for decision making in relation to responding to the National Review's recommendations
• finalise the costing of the recommendations of this Service Review including the specific manpower needs, once the recommendations of this review are accepted
• develop further and plan for implementation of quality standards of care across Scotland for all levels of treatment for eating disorders, in line with Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), Medical Emergencies in Eating Disorders (MEED) (CR233 May 2022), and Scottish Government's Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan, Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) and other relevant policy documents
• develop a skills and competency framework, and training strategy in partnership with NHS Education Scotland (NES) and Eating Disorders Education and Training Scotland (EEATS), for all staff, including the third sector, who may see or work with people who have eating disorder symptoms or diagnosis
• build a public health strategy for Scotland with Public Health Scotland and other agencies that make eating disorder prevention everyone's business
• design as a priority a comprehensive plan for systematic data collection and ongoing analysis across Scotland, to address the current lack of data. This needs to include planning and funding for appropriate staffing and IT infrastructure to be able to collect, analyse and report the data systematically across Scotland