NHS Scotland performance against LDP standards

LDP Standard

NHS Boards to sustain and embed successful smoking quits at 12 weeks post quit, in the 40 per cent most deprived SIMD areas (60 per cent in the Island Boards).

Current national performance

In the year ending March 2020 there were 6,828 successful quits at 12 weeks post quit.

About this LDP standard

This target sets out the key contribution of NHSScotland to reduce the prevalence of smoking. Smoking has long been recognised as the biggest single cause of preventable ill-health and premature death. It is a key factor in health inequalities and is estimated to be linked to some 13,000 deaths and many more hospital admissions each year. The annual cost to NHSScotland of treating smoking related diseases is estimated to exceed £300m and may be higher than £500m each year.

Although substantial achievements have been made in reducing the smoking rate in Scotland, smoking remains a major influence on Scotland's health. The prevalence gap between the most and least deprived is large, with the most deprived also suffering more smoking related ill health. Progress in reducing the smoking rate in Scotland has previously been measured by a National Indicator in Scotland Performs. However this indicator is no longer being reported in the new National Performance Framework which was launched in June 2018. Instead a new national indicator on ‘health risk behaviours’ which includes being a current smoker, is included in the new National Performance Framework. The prevalence of smoking continues to be reported in the Scottish Health Survey.

The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving its vision of a smoke free Scotland by 2034. The emphasis is on supporting people who want to quit smoking by delivering effective cessation services and preventing smoking uptake amongst young people. NHS Boards will continue to deliver a universal smoking cessation service, though the emphasis of this target is on helping people in deprived areas where smoking prevalence is highest.

Performance against this standard

The standard is to sustain and embed successful smoking quits, at 12 weeks post quit, for people residing in the 40 per cent most-deprived datazones (60% for island health boards) in the NHS Board (i.e. two most-deprived local quintiles (three most deprived local quintiles for island health boards)). NHSScotland is to deliver at least 7,000 successful quits, at 12 weeks post quit, over the year ending March 2020.   

In the year ending March 2020 there were 30,051 quit attempts in the most deprived areas, 6,828 were still not smoking at three months, a ‘quit rate’ of 22.7%, similar to the overall Scotland quit rate of 23.6%. This is below the LDP standard target of 7,026 three month quits in the most deprived areas.

NHS Board level performance is shown for the most recent financial year in the table below.

The table below shows the number of successful 12 weeks post quit smoking deliveries, by NHS Board, for 2019/20.

NHS Board	2019/20	Target 2019/20
NHS AYRSHIRE & ARRAN	454	518
NHS BORDERS	96	124
NHS DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY	185	161
NHS FIFE	439	473
NHS FORTH VALLEY	319	347
NHS GRAMPIAN	643	710
NHS GREATER GLASGOW & CLYDE	2,080	1,689
NHS HIGHLAND	281	336
NHS LANARKSHIRE	902	902
NHS LOTHIAN	758	1,181
NHS ORKNEY	18	31
NHS SHETLAND	20	38
NHS TAYSIDE	595	486
NHS WESTERN ISLES	38	30
NHSSCOTLAND	6,828	7,026

Source: The national smoking cessation database. The annual performance was published on 20/10/2020. 

Further information

ISD Scotland publishes a quarterly release of health board and national performance against the Local Delivery Plan (LDP) for Smoking Cessation.

The dashboard includes national summary information relating to performance against the Local Delivery Plan (LDP) Standard. Data are shown at Scotland and NHS Board level, for financial years 2014/15 to 2019/20 (Q4), broken down by quarter.

Users are advised to view these statistics as providing a useful insight on activity levels, which when taken together with ISD’s annual report, provide a balanced package of timely and comprehensive statistics.

Please note that due to a change in methodology and the exclusion of prisons, the 2019/20 LDP Standard is 7,026. This compares to the previous year (2018/19) which was 7,568

The most recent quarterly report showed that during financial year April 2019 to March 2020:

• NHS Scotland achieved 97.2% (6,828 out of 7,026 self-reported twelve-week quits) of the required annual LDP Standard.
• There is wide variation between NHS Boards: whilst eight NHS Boards met or exceeded the target number of successful twelve-week quits, the other six NHS Boards achieved less than 90%. 
   

Further information

NHS Smoking Cessation Services Local Delivery Plan Standard Performance - annual and quarterly reporting - dashboard

Raising Scotland's tobacco-free generation : our tobacco control action plan 2018

​Creating a Tobacco Free Generation - A Tobacco Control Strategy for Scotland

New National Performance Framework (launched in June 2018)

Health risk behaviours - National Indicator (based on new National Performance Framework)

Smoking prevalence - National Indicator (based on old National Performance Framework)

NHS Smoking Cessation Services Statistics

Tobacco use: smoking attributable deaths (ScotPHO)

Scottish Health Survey

Page updated : 20 October 2020