Pain Management Task Force minutes: February 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Lynne Nicol (Chair), Deputy Director Scottish Government
• Will Wood (Deputy Chair), Long Term Conditions Unit Head, Scottish Government
• Nicola Rhind, National Clinical Lead for Pain Management
• Aline Williams, Service Managers Network Lead
• Jacquelyn Watson, Pain Nurse Network Lead
• Lars Williams, Medics Network Lead
• Anne Wallace, Professional Advisor
• Nina Cockton, Psychology Network Lead
• Rory Mackenzie, Associate Clinical Director, NHS CFSD
• Lived Experience Volunteer
• Heather Harrison, Pain Pharmacy Network Lead
• Tracy Robertson, AHP Network Lead
• Pain Concern Volunteer
• Gayle McCann, Senior Policy Manager, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Lois Lobban, Senior Policy Manager, Rehabilitation, Scottish Government
• Lived Experience Volunteer

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, and introductions were made for Sam, who attended the group for the first time. 

Approval of minutes & matters arising

The previous minutes were approved and will be published on the Scottish Government website.

Implementation Progress updates 

SIGN - The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines are progressing well. The group were informed that the money transferred to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to help facilitate the development of the guidelines was returned due to an overall organisational overspend. HIS have provided assurances that the SIGN guidelines work will be completed as agreed.

Education - The chronic pain knowledge hub and the learning toolkit for practice types informed and skilled are live. The education group will now begin work on the training pathways for the enhanced and specialist practice types.

SLWGA - Work continues on the lived experience engagement toolkit; the final draft will be shared with network leads for comment prior to publishing on the knowledge hub. The group will then consider public messaging to be disseminated during global pain awareness month in September. 

Workforce - The workforce group met on 9 December and will meet again on 25 February. Questions were issued to service managers to better understand how sustainable services are delivered and managed. The chairs of the workforce group met with workforce planning colleagues to discuss the output of the workforce group.

Data  - The group was informed that the new data collection has been collected alongside the existing data collection for three quarters. The data is now with Public Health Scotland, who will now assess the robustness of the new data collection. It was suggested that the data group could consider data relating to the core minimum dataset.  

Third Sector  - The third sector network will be chaired by long-term conditions policy going forward. An open invitation was shared with the third sector to join the Pain Management Task Force, and there is now third sector representation on this group. 

SNPMP - Policy met with NSD colleagues to discuss any arising matters. No issues concerning the SNPMP were raised. 

Standards - The group were informed that a request was sent to Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to create National Standards for Chronic Pain. Long-term conditions continue to work with HIS to understand how much financial resource is required to develop national standards.

Prescribing - The work on prescribing guide is going well, with a draft being prepared to be published for consultation in the next couple of months. The prescribing guide is on track to be published later this year.

Chronic Pain Knowledge Hub and Toolkit evaluation 

The National Clinical lead for Chronic Pain provided an update and presented on this item.

The modules were developed based on consulting with multi-disciplinary teams and their responses to current levels of knowledge and awareness of chronic pain.

Volunteers were asked to complete two modules to evaluate the skilled practice type module. Their confidence scores were self-assessed pre- and post-module. Forty-five individuals completed at least two modules. There was positive feedback in response to the modules, with individuals scoring higher in confidence and knowledge of chronic pain on module completion. The evaluation volunteers will be contacted for their views in three and six months to better understand the modules' impact on their service delivery. 
The group thanked all involved in this work and were very positive about the modules. The group thought it would be good to add a digital certificate as proof of completion.

Risk register

The group was informed that there are currently capacity issues within the policy team in the Scottish Government, and they are hoping this will be resolved as soon as possible. 

Finance and commissioning

The budget at the time of the meeting was still to be approved by Parliament but was expected to pass. The budget is still to be finalised locally, and it is hoped that this will be finalised by the next meeting.

Communications update

The group were informed that the health board visits have had to be delayed until a new National Clinical Lead is in post.

Membership – Chair, Third Sector, Clinical Lead

The group welcomed Sam from Pain Concern as a new member and noted that Sonia from Pain Association would also be present at the next meeting.

The chair informed the group that she would be stepping down and passing over chair responsibilities to Will Wood, Unit Head of the Long-Term Conditions Unit. 

This was the last meeting of the National Clinical Lead, who wished to put her thanks on record for all the support, hard work and dedication she received whilst in the post. The group also wished to put on record their thanks to the National Clinical Lead for all their hard work whilst in post. 

AOB

No further business was discussed and meeting was brought to a close