NATIONAL SEXUAL HEALTH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Minutes of the tenth meeting held on Monday 16 June 2008, Committee Room 1, Victoria Quay
Present
Members:
Ms Shona Robison MSP, Minister for Public Health (Chair)
Professor Peter Donnelly, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Scottish Government (Deputy Chair)
Dr Nil Banerjee, NHS Fife
Dr Jim Chalmers, ISD Scotland
Mr Nicky Coia, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Ms Alison Craig, NHS Lothian
Professor Anna Glasier, NHS Lothian
Ms Shirley Fraser, NHS Health Scotland
Mrs Hawys Kilday, Caledonia Youth
Mr Roy Kilpatrick, HIV Scotland
Dr Alison McCallum, NHS Lothian
Mr Michael McGrath, Scottish Catholic Education Service
Mr Donald MacKay, Midlothian Council
Mr Fergus McMillan, LGBT Youth
Dr David Sutherland, NHS Education for Scotland
Dr Daniel Wight, Medical Research Council (Scotland)
In Attendance:
Ms Eleanor Connor, Scottish Parent & Teacher's Association
Mrs Mary Cuthbert, Sexual Health & HIV Policy Team, Scottish Government
Mr Mike Massarro - Mallinson, NHS Lothian
Ms Dona Milne, Sexual Health & HIV Policy Team, Scottish Government
Ms Cheryl Paris, Sexual Health & HIV Policy Team, Scottish Government
Mr David Pattison, Chief Medical Officer Directorate, Scottish Government
Observer:
Ms Lorraine Forster, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Apologies:
Ms Mary Allison, NHS Health Scotland
Dr Eric Baijal, NHS Highland
Dr Jenny Bennison, Royal College of General Practitioners
Mr Gordon Currie, Scottish Government Education Directorate
Ms Miranda Harvey, Scottish Parent & Teacher's Association
Ms Christine McGuire, Head Teachers Association
Ms Fiona MacKenzie, NHS Forth Valley
Agenda Item 1: Welcome and Introductions
1. Ms Robison welcomed the members to the tenth meeting of NSHAC, particularly welcoming Lorraine Forster, who was observing the meeting in a learning capacity.
2. The members noted events which had occurred since the last meeting of the committee:
· The Review Team carrying out a stock taking review of Respect and Responsibility had now submitted a draft report to the Scottish Government. Ms Robison thanked all of those who had been involved in the stock taking review, which without them would not have been able to take place.
· Funding was secured through the most recent spending review to increase access to independent sexual health information throughout Scotland. Officials within the Sexual Health and HIV Team had been working with NHS Health Scotland and national sexual health leads to determine how best to spend the funding. Throughout the summer months questions to determine how young people and adults currently access or would prefer to access sexual health information would be submitted to the Omnibus poll. This would help to inform how information on services can be improved.
· Officials from the Sexual Health and HIV Team had submitted a bid to the marketing unit within Scottish Government for funding for a social marketing campaign. The outcome of this bid was still to be decided.
Post meeting note: The marketing bid was successful and a plan for social marketing work is being created.
· The Scottish Government had agreed to a national PGD with Community Pharmacy Scotland for the provision of emergency hormonal contraception and chlamydia testing and treatment, to be implemented in the autumn of 2008.
· The Scottish Government, NHS Tayside and NHS Lothian would be collaborating to run a sexual health service at T in the Park, Scotland's largest music festival, which was taking place in July. This service to comprise free condoms, chlamydia testing and sexual health information and advice, would be situated within the Healthy T area which would also provide healthy food and non-alcoholic drinks.
· To reflect the re-focussing of the Scottish Government's work on HIV the National Sexual Health Advisory Committee would be re-named to include HIV. The Committee would therefore now be the National Sexual Health and HIV Committee (NSHHAC). This re-focussing would also be reflected the in the name of the policy team which would now become the Sexual Health and HIV Team.
3. The Committee welcomed the introduction of the PGD and noted that the detail of the protocol was still being worked through and that this would be done in consultation with lead clinicians and other relevant stakeholders.
4. The Members also welcomed the re-naming of the Committee to include HIV.
Agenda Item 2: Note of the ninth meeting held on 4 February 2008
5. This was agreed subject to the following change: Shirley Fraser to be added to the attendee list.
Matters Arising
6. The Remote and Rural report which was produced by a sub-group of NSHAC had been distributed to Directors of Public Health and relevant policy leads within the Scottish Government.
7. Actions from the Education and Training report were in the process of being fed into all relevant agencies work plans.
8. Fiona McKenzie was added to the list of attendees from the previous meeting.
9. Michael McGrath had been sent a form of words to agree regarding SRE provision in denominational schools for the previous minutes of NSHAC.
Agenda Item 3: Progress Report and Recommendations of current NSHAC Actions
10. The Committee Members noted that a large amount of work had been undertaken since its inception with some of the most successful pieces of work including:
· Remote and Rural Report
· Learning Disabilities Paper
· MSM Report
· Education and Training Report
· Research
· Key Clinical Indicators
· NHS QIS Standards
11. Danny Wight was invited to update the Committee on the findings of the Research Subgroup which was formed to provide an overview of research relevant to sexual health (of defined vulnerable and hard to reach groups in Scotland) and to identify research gaps.
12. The subgroup identified 11 key vulnerable groups. These were:
- Homeless people
- Male and female prisoners and young offenders
- Looked-after and accommodated children and young people
- Refugees / Asylum seekers
- Transgender people
- Women experiencing gender-based violence
- Female sex workers
- Male sex workers
- Gypsy/Travellers
- HIV positive African populations
- Women who have sex with women
13. Men who have sex with men, people with disabilities and minority ethnic groups were not included as substantial research already existed for these groups.
14. Summary reports had been compiled for each of the identified groups and had been circulated to key researchers in Scotland with very positive feedback being received. As summary reports had not been compiled for three key groups - men who have sex with men, people with learning disabilities and minority ethnic groups, recent reviews already completed for these groups would be augmented to produce comparable reports by the end of August 2008. The different groups would then be ranked and this ranking would be presented at the next meeting of NSHAC in October 2008.
15. Roy Kilpatrick was invited to update the Members on the national HIV meeting which took place on 27 May 2008. Roy wished to note his thanks to Dan Clutterbuck and the MSM subgroup which had now completed its work. The members noted that the increased and improved testing for HIV combined with better medication had resulted in more people living with HIV in Scotland. While this was positive news much discussion at the national meeting had taken place regarding increasing testing further to ensure that individuals are diagnosed and receive the correct medication as early as possible. It was noted that GP's were key to early diagnosis and more work needed to be done to train GP's on identifying those most at risk and on the presenting illnesses associated with HIV.
16. The outcome of the meeting was to develop an HIV Action Plan which the Secretariat together with key stakeholders is taking forward.
17. Shirley Fraser updated the members on the Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) research which had been commissioned by NHS Health Scotland and was being undertaken by Aberdeen University. The research had now been completed in secondary schools with a similar parallel review being undertaken in primary schools. Initial findings from this research showed a need to develop SRE resources which pick up social and cultural factors. The research also showed a need to focus on relationships education for younger age groups.
18. Jim Chalmers updated the members on the vast improvements in data collection which now existed for sexual health. Through the development of DASH and the Key Clinical Indicators, ISD now collect a large amount of broad data on many aspects of sexual health generally and sexual health services. NASH, the NHS sexual health IT system, was currently being rolled out across Scotland and would allow information to be shared between sexual health clinicians. This system would also allow ISD to collect data more easily.
Agenda Item 4: Proposed outcomes and actions for Respect and Responsibility
19. Following the stocktaking review of Respect and Responsibility a national meeting was held in March 2008 to disseminate the findings from the review and set priorities for the next 3 years. The Sexual Health and HIV Team had circulated the priorities which were identified at that meeting to key stakeholders for consultation and had subsequently refined them in light of the helpful comments received. The importance of thinking laterally both across Scottish Government policy and across local planning and delivery agencies to identify the contribution to sexual health which might be made by the range of policy areas was identified as being particularly important.
20. There was a full and wide ranging discussion following which the Members broadly agreed the outcomes. A number of important points were however raised during this discussion. It was noted that General Practice had a leading role to play in providing sexual health services, however as there were no incentives within the GP contract this role would not necessarily be realised.
21. Ms Robison noted this point and asked officials to look into what other contractual opportunities were available. She also noted the value of using sexual health champions who already exist to drive forward change among GPs in Scotland.
(Action: Secretariat)
22. The Committee agreed the importance of influencing cultural factors associated with sexual health as a way of delaying sexual activity, reducing STIs, unintended pregnancy and termination of pregnancy. It would be important to link with other influencing policy areas such as alcohol and to link with the voluntary sector to produce a social marketing campaign that challenged Scottish sexual health culture and attitudes.
23. The secretariat agreed to finalise the outcomes in light of the discussions and circulate to key stakeholders for a final consultation before sign off.
(Action: Secretariat)
Agenda Item 5: Membership
Ms Robison thanked the Committee members for the excellent work which had been completed throughout the last 3 years. She noted that this was due to the determination, hard work and enthusiasm of those on the Committee. Following the outcomes of the stock taking review the Committee membership now required to be re-focused to reflect the outcomes for the next 3 years. The membership of the Committee would therefore be considered and re-focussed before its next meeting in October and members would be contacted shortly.
Agenda Item 6: Any Other Business
No Members raised any additional business.
Agenda Item 7: Date of Next Meeting
The Members noted that the following meeting would take place on 6 October 2008.
Agenda Item 8: Closing Remarks
Ms Robison thanked the Members for the excellent progress which had been made to date. The Minister also thanked David Pattison who, after working with the Scottish Government on sexual health and other public health topics was moving on to pastures new.
NSHAC SECRETARIAT
AUGUST 2008