Members update from ALLIANCE Chief Officer
Read our member exclusive update from ALLIANCE Chief Officer, Sara Redmond.
Dear members,
I am pleased to introduce our latest members’ newsletter to you. Spring is in the air, and it has been nice to have lighter mornings and afternoons back.
Funding Challenges
Our work has been focused on the funding challenges that are facing community health and social care services across the country. We know this is having a real impact on you – individually and on our member organisations. We are taking steps to raise awareness about this. Many of these funding cuts are from Health and Social Care Partnerships’ budgets. The ALLIANCE has been gathering evidence about how these cuts are affecting people accessing social care through a survey which has gone out to members. Thank you for responding to this survey.
Members are increasingly getting in touch directly to speak about the examples you are coming across. The problems being described are both the level of cuts facing the services organisations deliver but also the short notice being given. I am aware that decisions are being taken to cut services without carrying out impact assessments or engaging with people. I will be writing to the Health and Social Care Partnership Chairs and Vice Chairs network to raise these concerns and ask for a meeting to discuss actions.
Last week an Audit Scotland report was published into the finances of Health and Social Care Partnerships. This briefing describes the financial difficulties the partnerships are facing. We put out a statement highlighting the need for partnerships to work with the third sector when coming up with plans in response to these challenges.
Health and Social Care Reform
Last month I updated on the various governance groups which Scottish Government have for health and social care reform. Last week I wrote to the head of NHS Scotland to ask for there to be third sector representation included within these groups to make sure that the sector’s interests are being considered.
National Care Service
We continue to engage on the social care reforms that are being taken forward. This past week we wrote to the Minister for Social Care to ask for an update on the plans being progressed, now that the Bill going through parliament is greatly reduced.
Social Security
The ALLIANCE attends the Social Security Scotland stakeholder reference group. We also met recently with the Head of Operations. She informed us that the Carer Support Payment case transfer is still ongoing and are likely to continue until the summer. The Adult Disability Payment case transfer is also ongoing. The Pension Age Disability Payment pilot is also underway.
Social Security Scotland are aware that there is still a long processing time when someone applies for Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment. This is a priority they are working to improve on. An issue which they are also keen to explore is stigma, and how it impacts on people applying for an entitlement. This is something which the ALLIANCE have offered to help them with.
We have some interesting engagement work taking place too. The membership team has been speaking to NHS Scotland about the ways they gather feedback from people about whether they received high-quality care. We have offered to host a focus group on person-centred care and tools to measure its delivery.
Self Management
Our self management team continue to promote the importance of people having choice and control, and the right support to help them live well. The team are offering learning events to the Waiting Well Network. This is a network supporting health professionals feel better able to support people while they wait for care or treatment.
We are currently organising a nationwide event focused on Self Management for Health and Social Care Partnerships across Scotland, in collaboration with Health and Social Care Scotland. The event will promote the importance of supported self management and hopefully encourage more reference to these approaches in partnership strategic plans.
Annual Conference
Our annual conference and AGM takes place next month on 30 April. I am looking forward to spending the day with those of you able to attend. If you have any questions about the day please get in touch. We work hard to make it inclusive, fun and informative. The best bit is spending time together and networking with so many members. This year we have a packed agenda. We want the focus to be on Scotland holding it’s nerve in our work to be a human rights protecting, respecting and fulfilling nation. We know there are a lot of challenges to this happening, and it’s important to remember that our voices matter.
Self Management Awards
Finally, I wanted to share the news that, in memory of our cofounder and ex chair who sadly passed away last year, we are naming one of the Self Management Awards in her honour. The “Audrey Birt Self Management Champion” award. Her family have mentioned this in their final post on Audrey’s long running blog.