Carer Voices 2022 round-up

Stay up-to-date with this year’s work from the ALLIANCE Carer Voices project.

In 2022, the ALLIANCE Carer Voices project has been privileged to continue our programme of in-person engagement with health and social care staff to share the principles of person centred care, through delivering our ‘You Make a Difference’ talks and workshops. This year, we engaged with an incredible 14,167 people across 281 events, and we want to extend our sincere thanks to everyone for your support and commitment to this work, and for taking forward innovations and learnings that improve outcomes for staff, patients, carers and families across Scotland this year.

To celebrate this work, in November we launched our publication ‘Effecting Change’, which captured the work of a number of our partners in promoting culture change within their teams and organisations following engagement with Tommy Whitelaw’s sessions on Intelligent Kindness and person centred care. Through case studies, each partner organisation has evidenced the impact of embedding value-based practice and rights within their structures, processes, and service delivery, improving relationships and outcomes with the people they work with. We extend our great thanks to the contributing partners in this publication, many of whom joined us at the celebration event at Scottish Parliament kindly sponsored by Jackie Baillie MSP:

• Social Security Scotland
• Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland
• Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership
• Scottish Ambulance Service
• NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• NHS Lothian
• Riverbank Day Centre

This year, Director Irene Oldfather and Tommy Whitelaw have begun a new engagement partnership with the South Ayrshire Adult Protection Committee (SAAPC), which focuses on how we protect vulnerable adults in our community. This programme began with a reflective practice session in September with adult support and protection partnership colleagues, thinking about embedding person centred care in their processes. This was a great chance to connect with colleagues about the need for listening to adults at risk of harm and their families, and involving them in their own support plans and decision making.

Carer Voices was also pleased to visit the Riverbank Resource Centre in Stirling Council, which provides to support adults with profound and complex needs in their own community. Following an Intelligent Kindness workshop with staff at the Centre, Tommy Whitelaw worked with staff and our Artist in Residence Xuechang Leng to create a ‘What Matters to You’ tree, as a space for staff and service users to share their stories and what is important to them. Please watch our short film on the painting of the mural (link will take you away from our website), speaking to staff about what it means to them and their service users.

We have created further partnerships and connection through art this year, by sharing art installations with care homes across Glasgow City HSCP, created by Xuechang Leng and inspired by the dedication of staff. We also presented further art pieces to Leuchie House in North Berwick, which provides short breaks for those living with and affected by MS, Stroke, MND & Parkinson’s.

For the NHS Scotland Annual Conference 2022 in Aberdeen, Tommy Whitelaw interviewed Professor Alex McMahon and the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate (link will take you away from our website) at the Scottish Government about each of their leading roles, what they have been doing to support staff during COVID-19, and what their hopes were for this year’s conference.

We have also been privileged that unpaid carers have continued to connect with us and shared their stories at our online Carers Conversation Café, which brings unpaid carers from across Scotland together to connect, listen and share with each other. Through Tommy Whitelaw’s representation on the Scottish Government’s Social Covenant Steering Group (this link will take you away from our website), we also host a Conversation Café for this group, enabling further conversations about what matters to people in this process.

Into 2023, we can’t wait to continue connecting into new sectors and building new partnerships with Scottish Government directorates, statutory bodies, as well as third sector organisations. This work brings our key messages a wider audience each year, including more rural and remote communities, universities and teaching hospitals, and to more staff at the very start of their careers through our expanded Induction Day sessions across the country.

If you want to get involved with Carer Voices in 2023, please email us at carervoices@alliance-scotland.org.uk where you can book a talk or workshop, submit a case study or sign up to our newsletter!

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