Members update from ALLIANCE Chief Officer

Dear members,

Over the past year we have actively engaging on Scottish Government’s health and social care reform plans.  On January 27, I attended the First Minister’s speech on plans for NHS reform, followed by a roundtable on immediate priorities.  As expected, the governments focus includes increasing capacity to reduce waiting times, improving access, shifting the balance of care, and increasing digital innovation and prevention focused approaches.  At the same time, the First Minister has been holding discussions with stakeholders and has signalled the need for reforms to ensure our health and social care systems are sustainable and are more focused on improving health and tackling the causes of ill health.  Three documents will be published to set direction for these reforms: an operational improvement plan by March, a population health framework and a health and social care service reform framework, both by summer.

The governance arrangements appear to be a newly established Reform Executive which appears to be senior accountable officers within Scottish Government and a NHS Executive Group of NHS Board Chief Executives and the Director General of Health and Social Care. The ALLIANCE is represented on the Stakeholder Advisory Group which has met twice and includes a range of professional body representatives, workforce representatives, Scottish Government officials and others. 

I have raised the challenges being faced by the third sector – both when trying to engage as a partner in these reforms, but also when delivering services and support.  The First Minister acknowledged these challenges and recognised the sector’s contributions, but at the same time the realities of the situation seem to continue to be overlooked.  We will continue to seek clarity and are committed to pushing for third sector involvement together with the means and mechanisms to do so.

Late last year we undertook some work to review our evidence people have shared with us about what matters to them when accessing health services to bring to the fore the lived experiences of people accessing health services.  We convened a group of ALLIANCE members to discuss the findings and recommendations. The findings describe the challenges people can encounter accessing health services and which can impact on the quality of the experience.  We are working towards publishing this report by the end of February.  

The ALLIANCE are also part of the Primary Care and Community Health Steering Group which advises on the development of a route map – the practical changes – to help realise the strategic direction for primary care and community health.  Together with Voluntary Health Scotland we wrote to officials in December emphasising the importance of including the third sector in the definition of community health. We have offered to support engagement with members on the route map.

We remain committed to influencing social care reforms both by highlighting the current issues and engaging on the National Care Service.  I appreciated the responses received regarding the challenges people face and we will continue to use this feedback as we seek to press upon Scottish Government and parties of the need to reform social care to protect, respect and fulfil people’s rights.  

Recently, I met with Minister for Social Care and Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Maree Todd, to speak directly about the decision Scottish Government has taken to drop the main proposals for a National Care Service.  We continue to identify actions we can take to push for change which so many of our members have been describing to us through the past few years of engagement.  This involves us working with a range of other stakeholders together with other options which we will be pursuing over coming weeks.  We have also been working on amendments to the watered down Bill.

We have been involved in the steering group for Getting it Right for Everyone – the work to develop a national practice model for health and social care. Last year this saw the publication of the team around the person toolkit which you might be interested in reviewing: New GIRFE Toolkit launched to enhance person-centred care across Scotland – Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland

The First Minister’s speech highlighted the Scottish Government’s commitment to digital approaches to health and social care. The long-awaited ‘Digital Front Door’ for health and social care will launch in Lanarkshire by December.  Whilst the initial release will be very much focussed on health, there remains an acknowledgement that social care needs to be included in future.  The ALLIANCE’s Digital Citizen Panel will remain involved from an engagement and design perspective, as will the ALISS programme in terms of information provision.  Our Digital Director also met with representatives from the Scottish Government Social Care Data and Digital Division to discuss their approaches to co-design, ALISS and overlaps with work on the Care Information Scotland website.

In addition, there are plans underway to roll out the CHI (community health index) – the single unifier of each person who accesses NHS services – to social care which will help to bring health and social care information together. The NHS Inform review also continues, with the ALISS team particularly involved in addressing issues around search functionality of late, and the Digital Citizen Panel will again play a role in the near future.

Looking ahead our annual conference on 30 April will spotlight key issues and which is a great chance from us to hear directly from you and come together as a powerful voice for change. 

We are committed to developing the opportunities for member engagement and to take forward suggestions and ideas that lead to action. Please get in touch with any priorities or if there are any issues raised here which are of interest.

Sara Redmond, Chief Officer of Development.