Long Covid Stakeholder Statement

Joint call to ensure that Scotland’s Long Covid Strategy is co-produced and values lived experience.

In advance of the Scottish Parliament debate on Long Covid on Thursday 19th May, a group of key stakeholders have issued a collective call for action.

We ask the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to ensure that people with lived experience of Long Covid are at the centre of policy, practice, and decision-making in developing services and supporting people with Long Covid. We also highlight the need for decision-makers to value, involve, and embed the expertise of the third and independent sectors.

We call on the Scottish Government to ensure that they:

• Include the voices of adults, children and young people with Long Covid from the earliest stages of strategic planning and decision-making, following a “nothing about us without us” policy throughout.
• Provide clear feedback loops on how lived experience will be used, by whom, and when, and report how it has impacted decision making at a local and national level. People with lived experience of Long Covid should be involved in the design, delivery, and implementation of any review of services
• Design communications to ensure that they are fully accessible for people living with Long Covid.
• Ensure that people living with Long Covid have equal access to clinical interventions, supported self management, and social support, no matter where they live in Scotland. The Scottish Government should facilitate health, social care, education, and social security professionals at a national level to share examples of best practice in supporting people with Long Covid. This sharing of good practice should include direct guidance from people with lived experience of Long Covid.
• Improve understanding and knowledge of Long Covid in the community. The Scottish Government should run ongoing national Long Covid communications campaigns to educate the public about Long Covid and the effects it can have on people, and highlight resources and supports. Key themes should include supportive employment practices, information about social security and social care, and educational best practice.
• Improve training to empower a range of professionals to better support people with Long Covid. The Scottish Government, Health Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships and local authorities should invest in and facilitate essential training for health, social care, education, and social security professionals to improve understanding of Long Covid and its implications so that people experience an “any door” approach to support. This training should take a trauma-informed approach and be developed and delivered in conjunction with those with lived experience.

The signatories to this statement are happy to provide assistance in embedding lived experience.

You can read the full Stakeholder Statement here.

If you have any questions for the signatories, please get in touch by emailing Dr Hannah Tweed at hannah.tweed@alliance-scotland.org.

End of page.