“Strengthening our voice has never been more important.” The ALLIANCE Annual Conference 2023

Delegates, sponsors, and speakers came together to discuss health inequalities at major Annual Conference.

The ALLIANCE Annual Conference – Strengthening our Collective Voice, brought together a cross sector of people with an interest in health and social care to explore action needed to address rising cost of living and its impact in widening health inequalities.

The Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care, Michael Matheson, opened the conference by recognising some of the most pressing issues facing Scotland’s health and social care sector, emphasising that, “it’s important that people are at the heart of shaping health and social care.” Mr Matheson made mention to the fact that the development of the National Care Service will help to improve the quality of care and delivery fair and consistent support, but only with genuine engagement with those with lived experience.

Following the opening statement from Michael Matheson, we welcomed on to the stage our panel of experts; Katie Kelly, Karin Goodwin, David Finch and Richard Meade. A key concern from the panel is moving away from a “talking shops” to ensure that we have meaningful co-design and production of our supports and services across the third sector. David Finch, from The Health Foundation, spoke on the issue of budget cuts: “Although there are fiscal restraints, there are opportunities. We need to understand what is causing this implementation gap and to hear from people about what those problems are and potential solutions.” Katie Kelly, former Depute Chief Executive of East Ayrshire Council, stated that “We need to have an investment culture and not a grants culture. The idea that prevention is luxury rather than about wider universalism is the real problem at hand.”

Delegates were then offered the opportunity in our morning workshops to explore a range of issues in more detail including SNAP, the new human rights action plan, Cost of Living and its impact on the sector, what next for the National Care Service, how to deliver effective campaigning updates on the ‘Lets be heard’ Scottish Covid Inquiry.

Throughout the day, delegates could engage with artists from Project Ability who captured a series of portraitures and relaxed over lunch with a sound bath taster.

We were pleased our IT providers SilverCloud were able to sponsor the event along with the support of a number of people sharing their information at stands.

The event closed off showcasing the importance of strengthening our voice with two of our Humans of Scotland contributors and an uplifting performance by the Fridays an inclusive rock band formed by MusicALL.

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