Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland
People at the Centre

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See below for useful links to our publications, films and further resources on person centred care.

If you have taken part in a Person Centred Voices talk or workshop with project lead Tommy Whitelaw, or are interested to learn more about implementing person centred practices, ‘What Matters To You?’ and building compassionate workplaces, look at our resources below.

Reports and Publications

Films and Websites

Become an ALLIANCE Member
Over 3,200 individuals and organisations across Scotland have joined the ALLIANCE to ensure their voices are heard.
Becoming an ALLIANCE member can be done in a few simple steps. More information can be found here.

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Through case studies from across Scotland, this new publication evidences culture change towards compassionate, person centred care.

For the last six years, the ALLIANCE’s Person Centred Voices programme (formerly Carer Voices) has been delivering training sessions in partnership with health and social care, third sector, and public sector organisations to encourage person centred practice that is driven by a number of key values and concepts: Value Based Reflective Practice, Intelligent Kindness, ‘What Matters to You’ (WMTY) and Civility Saves Lives. In 2022, the project has now reached over 270,000 individuals across over 1,700 events to share these key messages of compassionate, person centred care to drive improvement in people’s lives.

In order to evidence and evaluate this impact, this ALLIANCE publication, ‘Effecting Change’, captures the work of a number of partners in promoting culture change within their teams and organisations. Each partner organisation has seen the impact of embedding value-based practice and rights within their structures, processes, and service delivery, and each can be viewed as a benchmark for effecting culture change in their particular sectors.

Partners included in this publication are:

  • 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
  • Sheffield Teaching Hospital, Integrated Community Care

In working with each partner, the ALLIANCE has witnessed and been inspired by the impressive outcomes in each organisation. This publication is an opportunity to celebrate this work and share examples of good practice that any organisation can adopt, to foster an environment of kindness and wellbeing for staff, clients, service users, patients, families and carers.

Sara Redmond, the ALLIANCE Chief Officer of Development, said: “The work that Person Centred Voices and National Lead Tommy Whitelaw deliver on, explores the importance of kindness and the power of collective action. Asking people ‘What Matters to You?’ holds the potential to change the conversation and helps us understand people on a deeper level. Throughout this report, there are examples of ways that the work of Person Centred Voices has supported people to think about their skills in person centred care, listening to people and change the narrative from asking ‘what is wrong with you?’ to ‘What Matters to You?’”

Tommy Whitelaw, ALLIANCE Lead for Caring and Outreach, said: “It has been a privilege to work in partnership with NHS, health and social care, third sector, public sector organisations, universities, colleges, and care homes across Scotland to encourage kindness, listening and culture change that learns from the stories and experiences of carers, including my own journey, to place people at the heart.”

Read the full publication via the link below.

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Person Centred Voices works with health and social care and other sectors to encourage culture change on person centred practices.

Person Centred Voices (formerly Carer Voices) is an ALLIANCE project that works to promote person centred practices in public sector organisations; that is, to advocate for personalisation, empowerment and shared decision making across all areas of care and support. Focusing primarily on health and social care delivery and leadership, the project engages with teams to explore the culture change required to implement this approach, and drive improvement in the lives of people and their families.

Watch Project Lead Tommy Whitelaw discuss the work of the project in this short video below:

Led by National Lead Tommy Whitelaw, Person Centred Voices delivers talks and workshops to health and social care professionals and students; public sector leaders and managers; third sector organisations; and government departments across Scotland, to explore what person centred practice might look like across different teams and care settings.

Throughout this engagement, the project promotes the values and principles of ‘What Matters to You?’, ‘Intelligent Kindness’ and ‘Civility Saves Lives’ – movements that identify active listening, kindness, and person centredness as key to providing inclusive support and care to all individuals, as well as healthy work environments.

Person Centred Voices has recently evidenced the impact of this work through its publication ‘Effecting Change’, which captures the work of a number of partners in promoting person centred culture change within their teams and organisations. Each partner organisation has seen the impact of embedding this work within their organisational structures, processes, and service delivery, and each can be viewed as a benchmark for effecting culture change in their particular sectors. Among the benefits, our partners have seen:

  • Improved communication and trust between colleagues, frontline staff and service users;
  • More open and compassionate workplaces where employees can express their thoughts, concerns, and aspirations without fear of judgment;
  • The creation of new ‘What Matters To You?’ initiatives and processes to embed this change into the future.

If you would like to engage with Person Centred Voices, or have a story about implementing person centred practices within your team or service, please get in touch. If you have questions or want to get involved, please email personcentred@alliance-scotland.org.uk or tweet us @PersonCentredVo.

Person Centred Voices is funded by Scottish Government and works in collaboration with the Chief Nursing Officer’s Directorate and the Person-centred Outcomes, Participation and Sponsorship Unit (POPS).

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