Key areas of work that the Alliance is currently involved with include:

• The Development of Clinical Standards for Neurological Health Services

The Alliance believes that national standards are the quickest and most effective means of improving the quality of life for people affected by neurological conditions in Scotland and their families and carers.

In November 2004 the Scottish Executive announced that they would be developing standards of care for neurological conditions. At the beginning of 2006 NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) announced that the development of standards of care for neurological conditions would be included in its work programme.

The Alliance was on a steering group of a project to map services for people affected by neurological conditions, commissioned by NHS QIS. Additionally Alliance members were involved at all stages of the consultation process, attending open meetings and submitting comments to the draft standards which were produced at the end of 2008.

The final standards were lauched in Glasgow on 21st January. The Alliance is now involved with NHS QIS and other key stakeholders in the implementation of the standards. The Alliance Chair, Andy Wynd will chair the implementation advisory group and the Alliance National Coordinator will also be represented on the group. The Clinical Standards can be accessed on the website of NHS QIS here.

• National Policy Initiatives 

The Alliance are represented on the strategic board of the newly established Managed Service Network for Neurosurgery (MSN) which aims to promote a 'single service' approach to neurosurgery in Scotland whilst ensuring the four Scottish units for neurosurgery provide safe, sustainable and high quality local services. Alliance member organisations are also represented on the Operational Management Group, established to undertake the detailed work of the MSN. Current work includes the development of standards for Neurosurgery in Scotland and Alliance members have been involved in consultation regarding these standards. Further information about the network can be found here: http://www.neurosurgery.nhsscotland.com/

The Alliance has  been involved in the workstreams set up to feed in to the development of a national Dementia strategy announced by the Government in June 2009. The Alliance aims to ensure that all neurological conditions of which dementia is a feature, are accounted for in the development of an eventual strategy. Workstreams made a series of recommendations for the eventual strategy which is due to be published in the summer.

The Alliance has also been represented on a project being run by the Scottish Joint Neurosciences Council, and members were actively involved in the Patient Focus Public Involvement sub-committee of the Neurosciences Implementation Group. The Alliance will continue to be involved in the work of the Scottish Joint Neurosciences Council and it likely that an event will be held in the Autumn of this year.

Awareness-raising Activities