ALLIANCE Membership review of 2018

Our Membership team review activities over 2018 for our annual report.

The ALLIANCE membership continues to grow; with over 2,600 members working together to strengthen the voice of people who use health and social care support and services and promoting new models of care. Over the course of the year we have recruited over 600 new members – including a number of GP Surgeries throughout Scotland, Poverty Alliance, East Lothian Health Integration Joint Board and Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded.

This year we have held several successful training, development and networking events. Every event has been fully booked by members and we have received great feedback such as “…the most valuable course I have been on! Fantastic”. We have worked with our members to develop our training programme – looking at what has worked will in the past and gaining working with our membership to ensure each event would help build capacity in the third sector. Our events this year have included:

• Presenting, Pitching and Engaging with Other and Your Ideas
• Let’s talk about Integration
• Marketing the Essentials – Supercharged Stories
• Resilience for Everyday Living
• Volunteering
• Tools and Techniques of Stress Management

In addition to this we have worked in partnership with the Scottish Parliament Outreach Team, as well as Self Management Network Scotland to develop a serious of learning and engagement sessions for members to learn how to get involved in the work of the Scottish Parliament.

This year we have welcomed 44 new individual members who either live with a long term condition or provide unpaid care. Several of our individuals have gone on to join the involvement network – a network of ALLIANCE representatives that are involved in various opportunities to shape Health and Social Care throughout Scotland. We have worked closely with various organisations to provide exciting opportunities for our involvement network, including sharing their views on Scottish Parliaments engagement with disabled people and draft suicide strategy; engagement events to discuss health and social care priorities for Brexit and GP contracts; training opportunities including supporting peer led groups; representation on a Scottish Government Board and attending various events to ensure their voices are heard.

We have also been looking at opportunities to provide the involvement network with events that encourage peer support and wellbeing. As a result, we were delighted to be provided with 20 theatre tickets to take our members along to see Nativity the Musical at the Kings Theatre. It was a fantastic day and welcomed treat for all members involved. Afterwards we received lovely feedback such as: “just want to say thank you once again for giving me this treat. I thoroughly enjoyed it and so glad I got to see it”.

There are many ways that you or your organisation can benefit from being a part of the ALLIANCE. These range from having your voice heard and influencing national policy to practical support and sharing knowledge. If you would like more information on membership or have any questions or queries please email us at membership@alliance-scotland.org.uk. You can become a member by completing the online form.

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