Members update from ALLIANCE Chief Officer

Dear members 

We are in the final weeks of the parliamentary term and are eagerly awaiting the publication of Scottish Government’s Population Health Framework and Service Renewal Framework. Having shared your views with the Scottish Government, we hope to see these insights reflected in the final publication of both frameworks. Thank you to all members who engaged in this work. 

Long term conditions strategy consultation 

The ALLIANCE team continues to work on our response to the Long Term Conditions Strategy consultation. To gather your views and shape our consultation response, we are holding two events for our organisational and individual members on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 June, respectively. If you would like to share your perspective, please visit our website to find out more about the upcoming sessions or alternatively contact our policy team directly at policy@alliance-scotland.org.uk. 

Primary Care and Community Health   

The Scottish Government established a Primary Care and Community Health steering group in 2024 to advise on a plan for longer term reform of primary care and community health.  Over the past year the steering group has been advising on a route map for primary care reform.  This work will be reflected in the Service Renewal Framework to be published by the end of June.

Social Security planned changes  

This past month, our policy team has been working on our response to the planned changes to benefits to social security support by the UK Government. The Poverty Alliance has drafted a letter, which we have signed, describing the opposition to these proposed changes. We will continue to share our views publicly on the impacts these changes could have, especially on people with long term conditions, disabled people and unpaid carers. 

Fair Work  

Lucy Mulvagh, our Director of Policy, Research and Impact, and I recently met with an official from the Fair Work and Wellbeing Economy division to discuss the Scottish Governments plans. They still plan to develop a health and work action plan which will be linked to the Population Health Framework. We highlighted the role of our members – both as innovators with experiences to share and people with lived experience whose voices need to be centred in any plans being developed. We offered our membership events as a way of engaging directly and hope to be able to share this opportunity with you soon.  

More than Words: Communication for All   

We have appreciated your engagement and support of our new inclusive communication campaign – More than Words.  To date we have had over 100 people and organisations sign up to support it. The campaign aims to improve legal protection on people’s right to inclusive communication. We are calling for stronger statutory duties on health boards, local authorities and higher education providers to provide communication for all, train their staff, and collect and analyse data. We hope the campaign will help inform the government and public bodies on how to meet people’s communication needs, stop current injustices, and act as a springboard for much needed system change. Should you wish to sign up to the campaign please contact the Scottish Sensory Hub at sensory@alliance-scotland.org.uk.  

Community of Practice – Right to Health  

Last month we launched our Community of Practice on the Right to Health for ALLIANCE members. Some of the topics which were discussed included the importance of sharing information to raise awareness amongst our membership of the ways some groups’ rights are not being upheld. We also talked about sharing examples and innovations which are good examples of rights based approaches, including approaches which empower people to have their voice included in decision making.  

It is our hope that this Community of Practice will allow us a forum by which to help us make rights real in practice. If your organisation is interested in joining, contact our membership team directly at membership@alliance-scotland.org.uk. 

In sharing this roundup, we want to ensure our members stay informed about our work and opportunities to engage with Scottish Government policy and practice. If you would like any further information or to share your views on any of the issues discussed, please contact the membership team at membership@alliance-scotland.org.uk.