Welcome to the Right Decision Service (RDS) newsletter for October 2024.
Development of the contingency solutions to maximise RDS resilience and minimise risk of future outages is in progress, aiming for completion by Christmas. As a reminder, these contingency arrangements are:
In the meantime, a gentle reminder to encourage users to download essential clinical toolkits to their mobile devices so that there is an offline version always available.
A new scheduled deployment with minor improvements drawn from support tickets, externally funded projects, information related to outages, and feature requests will take place in early December. Key improvements planned are:
We are also seeking approval to use the NHS Scotland logo and title for the RDS app on the app stores to help with audience engagement and clarity around the provenance of RDS.
We are still hopeful that user acceptance testing for at least the Search and browse enhancements can take place before Christmas. Thank you for your patience and understanding in waiting for these improvements. Timescales have been pushed back by old app migration challenges, work to address outages, and most recently implementing the contingency arrangements.
We are aware that there continue to be some issues around a number of RDS support tickets, in part due to constraints around visibility for the RDS team of the tickets in the existing support portal. We are investigating the potential to move to a new support ticket requesting system from early in the new year. We will organise the proposed webinar around support ticket processes once we have confirmed the way forward with the system.
There is a known issue with alterations in formatting of some RDS tables which seems to have arisen as a result of the 17 October deployment. Tactuum is working on a fix and on implementing additional regression testing to prevent this issue recurring.
Recently launched toolkits include:
NHS Lothian Infectious Diseases
Scottish Health Technologies Group – Technology Assessment recommendations
NHS Tayside Anaesthetics and Critical Care projects – an innovative toolkit which uses PowerAutomate to manage review and response to proposals for improvement projects.
If you would like to promote one of your new toolkits through this newsletter, please contact ann.wales3@nhs.scot
A number of toolkits are expected to go live before Christmas, including:
We have had a good response to the recent invitation to sign up to the new Teams channel for RDS editors. This provides a forum for editors to share learning, ideas and questions and we hope to hold regular webinars on topics of interest. The RDS team is in the process of joining participants to the channel and we’d encourage all editors to take part, using the registration form – available in Providers section of the RDS Learning and Support area.
The RDS team has worked with colleagues in NHS Grampian and the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre to evaluate the impact of the Prevent the progress of diabetes web and mobile app in a small-scale pilot project. This app provides access to local and national resources and services targeted at people with prediabetes, a history of gestational diabetes, or candidates for remission. After just 8 weeks of using the app, 94% of patients reported increased their knowledge and understanding of diabetes, and 88% said it had increased their confidence and motivation to make lifestyle changes, highlighting specific behaviour changes. The learning from this project is informing development of a service model based on tailored support for patient groups with, high, medium and low digital self-efficacy.
Please contact ann.wales3@nhs.scot if you would like to know more about this project.
To book a place, please contact Olivia.graham@nhs.scot, providing your name, organisation, job role, and level of experience with RDS editing (none, a little, moderate, extensive.)
To invite colleagues to sign up to receive this newsletter, please signpost them to the registration form - also available in End-user and Provider sections of the RDS Learning and Support area. If you have any questions about the content of this newsletter, please contact his.decisionsupport@nhs.scot If you would prefer not to receive future newsletters, please email Olivia.graham@nhs.scot and ask to be removed from the circulation list.
With kind regards
Right Decision Service team
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
The Right Decision Service: the national decision support platform for Scotland’s health and care
Website: https://rightdecisions.scot.nhs.uk Mobile app download: Apple Android
In small schools, it is easier for staff to know which pupils have been diagnosed with an allergy.
A register that indicates which pupils have allergies should be distributed to all staff in the school, including the catering staff.
The catering manager should always be aware of the allergen free meals required per day for pupils with food allergies.
Young children are at risk of accidental exposure to allergens in primary school. Many substances and utensils used in activities can contain allergens such as playdough (gluten), dried pasta, lentils, balloons (latex), egg cartons etc.
Therefore, young children require supervision at all times and activities should be planned with allergies in mind.
Management Plans: Young children can develop tolerance (outgrow allergies), particularly to milk and egg. Therefore in the child's time at primary school, the Personalised Allergy Action Plan may change. Schools should ensure that parents/carers update them of any changes by having annual meetings or sending reminder letters/emails.
Strategies outlined in the 
Scottish Government guidance to prevent food allergic reactions include:
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Education in hygiene and cross contamination for all pupils - hand washing encouraged before and after meals/snacks/activities. |
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Appropriateness of meals purchased in the canteen should be checked with parents/carers. |
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Pupils with allergy should be taught and encouraged to ask catering staff about allergens in meals. |
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Where possible, all meals, drinks and snacks served in the school should be clearly labelled with allergens listed. |
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Individual drinks bottles or containers can be labelled with children’s names. |
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Appropriate supervision during meal times. |
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Permission obtained from parents/carers before giving food treats to pupils with allergies (e.g. Birthday parties/ Special events). |
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Plan to accommodate pupils with allergens before activities (e.g. craft, science or cooking classes). |
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Plan for catering arrangements and complete risk assessments before out of school activities (school trips, sports events, camps), including emergency planning for anaphylaxis. |
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Consider a no food/ utensil sharing policy. |
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Consider allergen free areas, used by everyone to avoid stigma. |
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Education for staff in cross contamination and reading food labels to check for allergens. |
The level of understanding and competence of the child needs to be assessed first in order for them to independently manage their allergy and carry their own emergency medication. Regular discussions with the school, parents/carers and healthcare professionals should be held to monitor this. Usually health professionals start offering training in how to manage allergic reactions and in the use of an AAI in children after 7 years of age.
The school should store the emergency medication on behalf of young children. It should be stored as part of an emergency kit.
In primary schools where the child does not move rooms often, the kit could be stored in the class, e.g. in the teacher’s shelf. It should be taken with the teacher or support staff member if the class moves far away from where the child’s kit is kept e.g. outdoor activities.
Transport between Home and School
Young children who can’t carry their own medication, must still have access to an AAI when travelling to and from school. The child’s own emergency kit should be carried by the parents/carers or left at school and pass it back to the parents/carers for transport to and from school.
The school should conduct regular audits of the emergency kit to ensure the medication is correct and in date. They should also send reminders to the parents/carers about this. It is recommended for the child's name and picture to be displayed on the outside of the kit where possible, for quick identifications in emergencies.
Teaching other pupils about allergies is a great way to encourage empathy, inclusion and responsible behaviour.
Educating pupils from an early age about allergies can also help tackle the national misunderstandings surrounding this topic.
Allergy can be added to the curriculum by using online resources such as:
Food Standards Scotland: Happy Hands!
Anaphylaxis Campaign: School Allergy Awareness Resource Pack
Creative Ideas to Engage Young Children:
Glitter can be used to demonstrate how allergens are easily spread by shaking hands or touching toys, books and surfaces. This also highlights the importance of hand washing to remove allergens. Food Allergy Canada
School allergy care
