National Review of Eating Disorder Services Implementation Group minutes: December 2021

Attendees and apologies

Co-chairs

• Dr Charlotte Oakley and
• Dennis Robertson 

Members

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

Apologies

• Johnathan Maclennan and
• Mirin Craig

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions from co-chairs

The chairs opened the third meeting of the national review of eating disorder services implementation group and welcomed members to the meeting. Apologies for the meeting were noted.

Approval of previous meeting minutes

The chairs highlighted to members that the minutes from the previous meeting in September 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 chairs invited Stephen, Fiona D and Fiona H to provide updates on their working groups.

Stephen provided an overview and update on the skills and training working group. He described that the group had begun to gather information on what training is currently provided to staff across Scotland and had made a start on analysing where the gaps were. It was agreed that a meeting would be arranged with NES colleagues to discuss next steps for the working group, specifically around the development of a critical elements training plan.

Stephen also outlined that he had been contacted by NHS health education England (HEE) about the development of an eating disorder hub which would hold training information. It wasn’t clear if this resource would be available for Scotland, even though Scottish clinicians had been asked to support its development. Stephen agreed to discuss the potential to work with NHS HEE to make the resource a UK wide resource which would link well with the working group’s remit.

Fiona D provided an overview and update on the quality standards working group. Fiona described the group’s initial discussions with health improvement Scotland (HIS) and their process for developing quality standards. She described that the working group wanted to be ambitious and the scope of the standards would be large. The group acknowledged that additional professions needed to be engaged with to support the development process. It was also agreed that a project manager was required to ensure that the working group was properly supported.

Fiona H provided and overview and update on the data improvement working group. The data working has their first meeting pencilled in for January. Early discussions have taken place around the group’s terms of reference and outcomes, which might include developing an annual audit of eating disorder data similar to the Scottish diabetes survey. We are currently scoping out what work is currently being taken forward in relation to improving child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and psychological therapies data. A new data set has been developed and being implemented across Scotland – the CAPTND data set. A lot of this new data will be helpful, although it will take a long time to be fully operational due to improvements that need to be made in IT infrastructure, etc. It was agreed that further scoping was required in relation to other data sets that are currently being collected in other areas, such as allied health professionals and through the third sector.

Update on SIGN guidelines

Charlotte provided an update on the SIGN guidelines that are currently being developed. Dennis and Charlotte met with programme manager for the eating disorder guidelines on 15 November. It was agreed that they would attend future implementation group and relevant working group meetings to ensure that we could support the effective implementation of the SIGN guidelines, which are due to be published in early 2022.

Update on lived experience panel, workforce specification and NHS board funding

Scottish Government officials provided updates on the lived experience panel, workforce specification and the NHS board funding that was allocated in September.

Lived experience panel - funding of up to £125,000 has been agreed to support the panel in financial year 2021/22. Funding will also be provided in 2022/23 although this is subject to parliamentary process and a specific amount cannot be confirmed yet. As soon as this has been agreed SG will confirm this with members. Once the specification has been cleared we will launch this through social media and members will be made aware so they can share with their networks.

Workforce specification paper - paper has been drafted and is currently with SG senior management for their views. Discussions ongoing with SG colleagues who lead on wider workforce improvement so that work does not duplicate efforts. Confirmation of budget is still ongoing. We are aiming to finalise this and get this issued by the end of the year. Once confirmed SG will share with members to share with their networks.

NHS boards funding – as outlined by recommendation 1 from the review, emergency funding was provided to each NHS board in September to support them to respond to the increase in eating disorder presentations due to the pandemic. SG requested updates on how this funding was being used from eating disorder leads from each NHS board by 26 November. SG are still waiting for a number of boards to respond. Once we receive all updates an update will be provided to members.

SG also have confirmed that specific eating disorder funding has been approved for next year. Although at this stage we cannot confirm a specific amount as this is still to be decided by parliamentary process.

Update on public health strategy

Charlotte provided an overview of the scoping work she has taken forward in relation to the development of an eating disorders public health strategy. This included: reviewing cases where has been similar public health initiatives (such as the work that has taken place in Catalonia, Quebec, Australia and the USA); continuing to collect information from other reputable Scottish public health campaigns/alliances; and finally assimilating the gathered information and knowledge to support her to write a plan to be taken forward and actioned by the eating disorder network (as described by the national review).

Members shared other public health initiatives that they knew of, including Striped. Stephen mentioned his role with PCAC (partners, chapters, affiliates and friends of academy for eating disorders) and that he would raise this during an upcoming meeting.

Discussion on eating disorder international conference (EDIC) and Scottish input

Stephen raised the upcoming eating disorder international conference that beat are hosting in Glasgow in 2022. There were concerns that there was very little Scottish input (presentations, posters, etc.). Members discussed the potential for a session on the national review and the implementation group.

It was agreed that Stephen would discuss the possibility of a session for the review and would take this forward with Charlotte if an application/abstract was required.

Next year and future meetings

Members agreed that the implementation group would meet in February to allow for the working group’s to continue their work before the next meeting.

The chairs thanked members for their commitment to this work over recent months and closed the meeting at 11:30.