As part of the Scottish government’s five-year framework to support neurological services and improve the care delivered to people living with neurological conditions, it has announced new funding for projects focused on neurological support across Scotland.

Eight projects across Scotland are set to receive a share of around £440,000 to enable them to enhance and expand the services they provide to people with neurological conditions.

This comes as part of the total £4.5m investment in services and projects through the five-year neurological care and support: framework for action running until 2025.

With this framework, the government is looking to ensure that people can access personalised care regardless of where in Scotland they live.

In the latest round of investment, funding has been distributed across NHS services in Ayrshire & Arran, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lothian as well as charities and organisations working across Scotland.

Announcing the new funding, Scotland’s Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said the range of projects will help those living with conditions from cerebral palsy, spina bifida and multiple sclerosis (MS) to migraines and functional neurological disorder.

 Ms Minto added:

“One million people in Scotland live with a neurological condition which is why we are committed to the neurological action plan as it supports various organisations to help these people to live well and on their own terms regardless of where they stay.

“All of these innovative projects seek to ensure seamless access to high-quality and co-ordinated health, social care and third sector support in the right place at the right time.”

Projects funded

The largest award of £135,501 has been made to Migraine Trust which partners with pharmacists to improve migraine management across Scotland.

The funding will, build on Migraine Trust’s NHS Grampian project by partnering with three more health boards to extend the reach of trained pharmacists.

Revive MS Support will receive £19,530 to ‘accelerate’ its collaborative work on developing an integrated national multiple sclerosis pathway.

Similar work localised to NHS Lothian will receive £38,763 towards its Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) clinical network for a ‘consistent point of contact for patients’ and support for staff.

Meanwhile, dedicated funding to Cerebral Palsy Scotland will enable the charity to deliver a smooth pathway for adults with cerebral palsy by creating a condition-specific link directory for local services and referral pathways.

Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland will also receive funding to develop a wellbeing pathway to support patients and aid staff in triaging people to services and resources.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Service Improvement Team will receive £82,000 will build on the success of its previous project supported in the previous round of government funding to deliver anticipatory care planning and carers support.

The team is also looking to develop a clinical decisions web-based toolkit, to allow the completion of pathway improvement work being carried out across NHS boards in the west of Scotland.

Another successful bid is a joint initiative by the Care Inspectorate and NHS Ayrshire & Arran, receiving £35,000 to better meet the needs of people with different neurological conditions across the region.

This will help prototype a national care network’ for care-at-home staff to meet with wider multiagency teams and people living with neurological conditions to share learning and good practice.

Care Inspectorate Allied Health Professional Consultant Heather Edwards said the team is delighted to have been awarded the funded:

“This collaboration in Ayrshire and Arran will provide a co-ordinated approach to enable opportunities for shared discussions and learning for staff across health and social care and importantly with people and their families.”

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