ALLIANCE publishes report on the development of Scotland’s Service Renewal Framework

ALLIANCE members had their say on the development of Scotland's Service Renewal Framework.

On May 7, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) hosted a member’s event in collaboration with the Scottish Government. ALLIANCE members from our lived experience and organisational networks gathered to learn, discuss, and offer insight to inform the development of Scotland’s Service Renewal Framework.

In June 2024, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care outlined the national vision of “A Scotland where people live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives”. In commitment to this vision, the development and consultation of three Health and Social Care publications was announced in January 2025;

• The Operational Improvement Plan (published March 31^st).
• The Population Health Framework (due for publication in May 2025).
• The Service Renewal Framework (to be published in June 2025).

The Service Renewal Framework, recommitted in the recent programme for government, will set out the long-term vision for health and social care service renewal and reform, outlining parameters and priority change areas for the next 5 to 10 years. Accordingly, the framework seeks to provide ‘absolute clarity’ around reform to delivery partners, stakeholders and the public.

Within breakout rooms and wider group discussion, ALLIANCE members discussed priorities, opportunities and practical steps critical to the delivery of national service renewal, providing informative and transferable experiences from across Scotland’s health and social care landscape.

• Prevention First: A focus on long term wellbeing, increasing prevention and early intervention to reduce the burden of disease. Citizens, communities and services preventing more together.
• Population First: The model of hospital and highly complex services will be a network planned around total population need; focusing on better, safer care that is also more efficient and results in shorter waiting times.
• Community First: More services will be moved from hospital delivery to community delivery – and hospitals will focus on the most acute and complex procedures or levels of care.
• People First: Citizens will be in charge of their own health and wellbeing as we support self-care. Services will be equitable, not always equal. Pathways of care will be designed around people, rather than the person having to fit around many different teams and systems.
• Digital First: Our transformation and business as usual delivery are maximised by digital and technological innovation – to support services to work and achieve better.

The ALLIANCE has produced a full report of the findings from across the sessions which summarises the key messages and feedback provided by ALLIANCE members across both engagement sessions, offering insight into specific challenges and priorities by which to inform the development of the framework. This report has been shared with the Scottish Government, to inform the development of the Service Renewal Framework.

Many key themes emerged from the session, which are detailed further in the short summary report below:

• The importance and challenge of delivering prevention focused systems
• The role of Supported Self Management in reform and renewal
• Placing the needs of the individual at the centre of renewal
• Coherence and learning between frameworks
• Person-led outcome measurements in evaluating renewal
• Integrating the third sector in service renewal
• Stronger integration between primary and secondary providers
• Flexibility in a Digital First approach

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