National Review of Eating Disorder Services Implementation Group minutes: February 2022

Attendees and apologies

Co-chair

• Dr Charlotte Oakley

Members

• Dr Stephen Anderson
• Dr Annabel Ross
• Dr Joy Olver
• Dr Karen McMahon
• Dr Paula Collin
• Susan Hynes
• Dr Lesley Pillans
• Fiona Huffer
• Dr Fiona Calder 
• Diane Kane
• Dr Helen Smith
• Johnathan Maclennan
• Officials from the Scottish Government (SG) were also in attendance

Apologies

• Fiona Duffy
• Gerald Donnelly
• Dennis Robertson

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions from co-chairs

The chair opened the fourth meeting of the national review of eating disorder services implementation group and welcomed members to the meeting. Apologies for the meeting were noted. It was agreed that the lead for the eating disorder SIGN guidelines would be invited to future meetings of the implementation group and the working groups.

Members were provided an update on the eating disorder international conference (EDIC) moving to fully online due to the ongoing covid-19 restrictions. It was noted that beat are keen to organise an in person event later in the year which the implementation group could provide an update on their work at. Charlotte noted that she had met with public health leaders in Scotland in relation to the public health strategy recommendation and would provide an update at the next meeting of the implementation group.

Approval of previous meeting minutes

The chairs highlighted to members that the minutes from the previous meeting in December were shared by email and asked for final confirmation that members were content. Members confirmed they were happy for the minutes to be published online.

Updates from working groups

The data working group’s first meeting is scheduled for 10 March 2022. It was noted that it will be important for lived experience representation in this group, the secretariat has approached beat if they have anyone with a specific interest in data. It was noted the importance of including PHS and the recommendations that the SIGN guidelines outline.

The quality standard working group had a productive meeting this morning and focused on discussing the consultation and engagement taken forward by the national review and using this has the basis for developing the quality standards. Members identified that it will be important to take a human rights based approach which needs to be embedded from the start. Eight areas have initially been identified as key areas where quality standards might be developed from, these include: community care, early identification and intervention, and parents & carers.

The training and skills working group highlighted their engagement work with NES and the global academy of eating disorders. They noted the importance of monitoring the effectiveness of training and how best to do this. Other areas of focus have been on awareness raising in schools and education, the group has also discussed beat’s spot the signs training that is available to school staff and medical school training. 

It was noted that it will be important that the quality standards working group keeps linked in and sharing progress with the implementation group, and other working groups, to ensure work is coordinated.

Eating disorder awareness week 2022 (28 February to 6 March 2022)

Scottish government officials provided an overview of the government’s plans for eating disorder awareness week 2022. This included the annual parliamentary debate, and potential ministerial announcement. Update on NHS board funding and lived experience panel funding Scottish government officials provided an overview of the funding that was issued to NHS boards last year to support them to respond to the increase in eating disorder referrals. A total of £4,4500,000 was allocated to NHS boards in Scotland through the NRAC formula. 

Early feedback highlighted that boards have used the funding to ensure their staff have access to the right training, expand clinician time and, to recruitment of additional staff. A fuller update on spend will be produced after the end of the financial year.

Members mentioned that for future funding to NHS boards it would useful for government to be more specific with how the funding should be spent, e.g. through regional uses, directly at inpatient units or specific professions. In addition, some areas such as training, should be nationalised so that this is consistent across the country.

Scottish government officials updated the group on the lived experience panel, due to agreement around budgets it has been agreed that the specification for the panel will be published to coincide with next financial year. Therefore the specification will be published in the coming weeks.

It was reported that some boards have not been able to spend their allocated funding. Therefore, an event was discussed, where boards would share their experiences of how they had used the funding, to help to share innovation and collaboration across Scotland.

Beat – services and support funded by Scottish government

Scottish government officials provided an update on the services that beat have been providing using funding that was allocated in June 2021. This funding was allocated in response to recommendation 6 (self-help resources) and recommendation 13 (families and carers) from the national review. Overall there has been good sign up rate to services on offer, however, beat have reported that there have been some issues with some adult mental health teams not referring many people, and/or referring people who they are unable to help due to them being too unwell.

Next steps and future direction of group

Members agreed that it would be useful to invite the minister for mental wellbeing and social care to the next meeting of the implementation group so that they can share their progress so far.

It was agreed that working groups should begin to think about how the future national eating disorder network (recommendation 3 from the national review) will take forward their outcomes.

It was agreed that the implementation group should begin thinking about developing a work plan for the network to ensure that momentum is kept as work progresses after the close of the implementation group.

Close of meeting and AOB

It was agreed that future meeting dates should occur every 7 weeks, on Friday between 11:30 to 12:30.

Meeting closed at 12:30.