NHS Scotland performance against LDP standards
Performance data on the current Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standards - priorities set and agreed between the Scottish Government and NHS Boards to provide assurance on NHS Scotland performance.
LDP standard
People newly diagnosed with dementia will be offered a minimum of one year's post-diagnostic support, coordinated by a named link worker.
Current national performance
The Fifth round of national performance data for the dementia post-diagnostic LDP Standard was published in March 2022, relating to performance during the period 2019/20. Please note that these figures are published as management information because of variable data quality.
There were 8,144 people diagnosed and referred for dementia post-diagnostic support in 2019/20. Of those referred in 2019/20 for post-diagnostic support, 81.3% received a minimum of one year’s support. In Scotland, 42.9% of those people estimated to be newly diagnosed with dementia in 2019/20 were referred for post-diagnostic support. Please note the calculation of the LDP performance figure excludes the 20 persons still undergoing PDS .
About this LDP standard
People with dementia benefit from an earlier diagnosis and access to the range of post-diagnostic services, which enable the person and their family to understand and adjust to a diagnosis, connect better and navigate through services and plan for future care including anticipatory care planning. This Standard supports the improvement of local post-diagnostic services as they work alongside and support people with a new diagnosis of dementia, and their family, in building a holistic and person-centred support plan.
The stated government ambition is that everyone newly diagnosed with dementia is offered a dedicated post-diagnostic service. There are no specific tolerances set either for the number of people being offered the service or the number of people completing.
The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders on improving the national post-diagnostic service offer by increasing capacity and capability and supporting improvements and innovations, with the aim that more people are offered the service year on year and are offered a more consistent and high quality service. We are also working with services to understand in more detail the reasons for non-completion of the service.
Performance against this standard
There are two elements to the standard: firstly, the number of newly diagnosed dementia cases in a performance year who are offered the service, expressed as a percentage of the overall estimate of newly diagnosed dementia cases within that performance year; and secondly the percentage of those referred for PDS in that performance year who received a minimum of a year's support .
Information presented in the latest available publication is not comparable to previously published information relating to the dementia post-diagnostic support LDP standard. This is due to a combination of the change in definitions, improvements to data quality and refinements to the method used to calculate the standard which are detailed in the main publication report. Detail on this can be found in the most recent publication. Therefore data is shown below for the latest two years available.
i) Referrals for Post Diagnostic Support as percentage of estimated newly diagnosed
In financial year 2019/20, 42.9% of people estimated to be newly diagnosed with dementia were referred for dementia post-diagnostic support.
Currently although the number of people referred for PDS is an actual count (8,144), the annual expected number of newly diagnosed dementia cases is an estimate (18,989), and hence the percentage of newly diagnosed cases referred for PDS is also an estimate.
NHS board level performance is shown for the most recent time period (2019/20) in the table below, as are the figures for the previous year 2018/19.
The table shows an estimated percentage of newly diagnosed people with dementia referred for PDS.
| NHS Board | 2018/19R | 2019/20P |
| Ayrshire & Arran | 40.5% | 42.5% |
| Borders | 29.9% | 39.9% |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 51.1% | 58.6% |
| Fife | 61.0% | 58.5% |
| Forth Valley | 43.5% | 39.7% |
| Grampian | 27.1% | 34.7% |
| Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 47.9% | 43.4% |
| Highland | 36.2% | 36.3% |
| Lanarkshire | 53.0% | 48.1% |
| Lothian | 43.2% | 43.6% |
| Orkney | 53.8% | 36.8% |
| Shetland | 67.9% | 69.0% |
| Tayside | 49.8% | 32.9% |
| Western Isles | 40.5% | 28.5% |
| Scotland | 44.8% | 42.9% |
R Figures for 2018/19 have been revised based on most recent submissions by NHS Boards.
ᴾ Figures for 2019/20 are provisional subject to all service users completing their support
ii) Completion of Post Diagnostic Support
The LDP Standard is that all people newly diagnosed with dementia receive a minimum of one year of post-diagnostic support (PDS) and have a person-centred plan in place at the end of that support period.
In financial year 2019/20, 81.3% of people diagnosed with dementia who were referred for post-diagnostic support received one year's support. Those currently still undergoing PDS were excluded as their outcome was not yet ascertained.
NHS board level performance is shown for the most recent time period (2019/20) in the table below, as are the figures for the previous year 2018/19.
The table below shows the percentage of people who received PDS support for 12 months.
| NHS Board | 2018/19R | 2019/20 P |
| Ayrshire & Arran | 91.8% | 92.4% |
| Borders | 79.1% | 83.8% |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 86.0% | 72.9% |
| Fife | 93.4% | 93.2% |
| Forth Valley | 80.2% | 92.6% |
| Grampian | 62.7% | 88.9% |
| Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 64.0% | 62.9% |
| Highland | 77.3% | 80.1% |
| Lanarkshire | 77.6% | 82.2% |
| Lothian | 59.0% | 81.7% |
| Orkney | 73.5% | 88.6% |
| Shetland | 56.4% | 64.9% |
| Tayside | 83.8% | 93.9% |
| Western Isles | 94.1% | 94.6% |
| Scotland | 74.9% | 81.3% |
R Figures for 2018/19 have been revised based on most recent publication by NHS Boards.
P Figures for 2019/20 are provisional subject to all service users completeing their support. Those still undergoing PDS are excluded from the LDP calculation.
Further information
Scotland’s National Dementia Strategy 2017-2020
Estimated and projected diagnosis rates for dementia in Scotland 2014-2020
Dementia Post-Diagnostic Support LDP Standard
Mental Health Summary Statistics
Related National Outcomes
Page updated : 31 March 2022
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