Self Management Week was first launched in 2010, building upon “Gaun Yersel” – the first Self Management Strategy for Scotland. The aim of the week is to bring people together and to share learning across the Self Management Network Scotland, the Self Management Fund projects and the wider ALLIANCE membership. 

During the Week, the ALLIANCE hosts and promotes a series of online and in-person events across Scotland, alongside publicity which showcases examples of good practice. Participation is free, inclusive and open to all.

Throughout July, August and September 2024 we ran an awareness campaign on social media to raise the profile and improve understanding of self management. This year’s theme was ‘Journeys’ and through this we raised awareness of different self management journeys, highlighting the different paths self management can take people on towards achieving improved health and wellbeing, the different points individuals are at on their journey with self management, and how self management enables us to move forward in life. Weekly opinion pieces and short videos were launched on our website and social media platforms around this theme.

Fair Work First is the Scottish Government’s flagship policy for driving high quality and fair work across the labour market in Scotland. This is increasingly being implemented by applying fair work criteria to grants, other funding and contracts being awarded across the public sector, where it is relevant to do so. Through this approach the Scottish Government is asking employers to adopt fair working practices, specifically:

• appropriate channels for effective voice, such as trade union recognition;
• investment in workforce development;
• no inappropriate use of zero hours contracts;
• action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace;
• payment of the Real Living Wage;
• offer flexible and family friendly working practices for all workers from day one of employment; and
• oppose the use of fire and rehire practice

Paying at least the Real Living Wage and providing appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice are mandatory while the other criteria are encouraged. Only in limited circumstances may the ALLIANCE consider making an exception to the mandatory criteria.

As a result, we are introducing checks for these two elements of the Fair Work First policy for all Self Management Funded projects. These checks are: that employees to receive at least the Real Living Wage; and that workers are provided with appropriate channels for effective voice on an individual and collective level.

Funded organisations should provide the most appropriate evidence for their organisation from the list below. You may need to provide more than one source of evidence depending on the make-up of your workforce and whether contractors/agency workers are employed to directly support delivery of the funded project.

Evidence of payment of Real Living Wage

Evidence of effective Employee Voice

Although it is encouraged in all organisations, the collective element of voice does not have to be evidenced by organisations with fewer than 21 workers. 

The Self Management Awards take place each year to celebrate the best of Self Management support across Scotland. This year, the winners were announced at the Self Management Awards ceremony which took place during Self Management Week on Wednesday 25 September. Here is the superb range of people, projects and organisations shortlisted across our seven categories this year, with the winners indicated in bold:

Self Management in the Community – in partnership with the ALLIANCE Links Worker Programme and sponsored by Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.

• Feeling Strong: The Heart of Dundee
• Finding Your Feet
• Moira Anderson Foundation – Glasgow Hub – WINNER
• Scotland Versus Arthritis Delivery Team
• Sober Buzz Scotland

The Self Management in the Community Award is decided by public vote, and the vote is now CLOSED. We’ll annouce the winner of this and all the other awards at the Award Ceremony on 25 September.

Self Management Resource – in partnership with ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) and sponsored by ConnectingYouNow

• Covid Rehab Team NHS Lanarkshire/NHS Scotland – National Services Scotland Long Covid
• End of Life Aid Skills for Everyone (EASE) – Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care – WINNER
• Long Covid Support – Scottish Ballet

Self Management Digital Innovator – in partnership with the ALLIANCE Digital Hub and sponsored by Tactuum

• The Black Door Shop – WINNER
• Mhor Collective
• Moray Wellbeing Hub CIC

Self Management Champion – in partnership with Humans of Scotland and sponsored by Strata Health
• Nav Bakhsh and Kashif Butt, Boots and Beards
• Cor Hutton, Finding Your Feet – WINNER
• Cath Wood, Moray Wellbeing Hub

Empowering Self Management Project – in partnership with the Health and Social Care Academy and sponsored by Thistle Foundation

• Boots and Beards
• Stand by Me, University of Stirling – WINNER
• Yo Glasgow

Sensory Impairment: Positive Self Management – in partnership with the Scottish Sensory Hub and sponsored by Sorenson
• Deafblind Scotland
• Deaf Links – WINNER
• Rearo

Self Management through the Arts – in partnership with ALLIANCE Live

• Art in Healthcare – WINNER
• Wellbeing Art Therapy Group – NHS Centre for Integrative Care & Spider Arts
• Long Covid Support – Scottish Ballet

Congratulations to all the winners!

Keep following our work on X at @SelfMgmtScot

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Over three Learning Day events, the funded projects within the 2018 Working Together to Strengthen Integration round worked together to come up with the best advice they would give to any new self management projects starting out. These are:

• Learn
  • One of the strongest themes that came through in the advice for new projects was to keep learning throughout the project – learn from what works and what doesn’t, learn from the people you work with, learn from colleagues and partner organisations.
  • When starting out, use the experience of partners to help you shape your plan, but make space in your plan to make changes as you learn and let the people guide you.
• Be Flexible
  • Being flexible in your approach allows you to implement learning as you go along, correct mistakes and make improvements. If you allow for movement in ideas and direction then you can pivot effectively if needed. Allowing the project to develop organically can take it in the direction it is most needed.
• Communicate
  • Take time to build relationships with partners, and make the most of their local expertise and knowledge to build a strong foundation for the project. Communicate with the people you work with, and trust the process of listening and responding to what people tell you they need.
• Check Outcomes
  • Try new things and learn from what works and what doesn’t, review your objectives regularly to ensure that they are still fit for purpose and that your project is progressing suitably. You shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge what is not working as this is part of the process of learning from it.
• Take Time
  • Take your time to plan the project properly, but allow time for the project to develop organically – you cannot rush any part of it! Spend time building relationships with partners and grow at an achievable pace.

You can find reports related to this event along with other Self Management Fund learning towards the bottom of this page.

Self Management Fund funded projects regularly showcase their learning and impact through ALLIANCE Live Project Insights. These short, informative videos raise awareness, share good practice and distribute knowledge to strengthen good health and social care policy and practice across Scotland.

A full report on the learning days is available to download below.

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The Self Management Fund: Resilience, Recovery and Development Round One projects began on 1 June 2021, Round Two projects on 1 October 2022, with Round Three projects beginning on 1 October 2023 Flash reports on the first two rounds are available below.

In general, the funded projects:

• Strengthen the resilience of the people they work with and the organisations
• Increase the opportunities for recovery in communities and the third sector
• Develop the services that have been identified as required for the future
• Contribute to the purpose of the Scottish Government’s Framework for supporting people through Recovery and Rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic (this link will take you away from our website) this link will take you away from The Alliance website
• Contribute to the resilience, recovery and development of people, communities and the third sector through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

In Round One, two grant types were offered, designed to:

• Test or investigate an idea
• Build on or develop existing work or knowledge
• Establish a service that is new to your organisation

In Round Two, grants were offered to projects to:

• Provide support to people experiencing multiple forms of marginalisation, including people with sensory loss; ethnic minority communities; disabled children and young people; people with learning and intellectual disabilities; people experiencing economic deprivation; and unpaid carers
• Focus on a hybrid way of working and supporting digital inclusion for those who have been excluded from the move to digital services.

In Round Three, grants were offered to projects to:

• Provide support for disabled people and people living with long term conditions and/or unpaid carers who experience disrupted care
• Address the wider determinants of health so that individuals are supported to live their lives better on their own terms, progress to employment, create and develop sustainable communities, and take a leadership role in preventing ill-health.

The majority of RRD grantees are still working to deliver activities and we will share more learning as projects continue to develop.

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Self Management Fund funded projects regularly showcase their learning and impact through ALLIANCE Live Project Insights. These short, informative videos raise awareness, share good practice and distribute knowledge to strengthen good health and social care policy and practice across Scotland.

Learning Reports summarising each round of funding are also available to download below. [Please link resources below: Self Management Fund Reports 2009-2020 and Self Management Fund Reports 2021-]

Advice for Self Management Projects

A group of previously funded projects worked together to come up with the best advice they would give to any new self management projects starting out. These are:

Learn

• One of the strongest themes that came through in the advice for new projects was to keep learning throughout the project – learn from what works and what doesn’t, learn from the people you work with, learn from colleagues and partner organisations.
• When starting out, use the experience of partners to help you shape your plan, but make space in your plan to make changes as you learn and let the people guide you.

Be Flexible

• Being flexible in your approach allows you to implement learning as you go along, correct mistakes and make improvements. If you allow for movement in ideas and direction then you can pivot effectively if needed. Allowing the project to develop organically can take it in the direction it is most needed.

Communicate

• Take time to build relationships with partners, and make the most of their local expertise and knowledge to build a strong foundation for the project. Communicate with the people you work with, and trust the process of listening and responding to what people tell you they need.

Check Outcomes

• Try new things and learn from what works and what doesn’t, review your objectives regularly to ensure that they are still fit for purpose and that your project is progressing suitably. You shouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge what is not working as this is part of the process of learning from it.

Take Time

• Take your time to plan the project properly, but allow time for the project to develop organically – you cannot rush any part of it! Spend time building relationships with partners and grow at an achievable pace.
• You can find reports related to this event along with other Self Management Fund learning towards the bottom of this page.

The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) administers the Self Management Fund on behalf of the Scottish Government, supporting third sector and community based organisations across Scotland to develop self management activities. Since 2009, The ALLIANCE has awarded over £28 million in funds to 464 projects. More information on the projects can be found in our Funded Projects section.

The Self Management Fund was created by the Scottish Government in response to recommendations made in the Gaun Yersel: the Self Management Strategy for Scotland (link will open in a new page). It was set up to support the development of co-produced, person centred, self management activity across Scotland. Learning from the experience of people living with long term conditions, and their unpaid carers, is central to the ethos of the fund.

Across all rounds of the Self Management Fund projects must show that:

• Work is new for the applicant organisation, or present a development of an existing idea.
• The idea has come from the people it is designed to benefit.
• Disabled people, individuals living with long term conditions and/or unpaid carers will be enabled to take a leadership role in the design, delivery and evaluation of the project.
• The capacity of disabled people, individuals living with long term conditions and/or unpaid carers to effectively self manage will be enhanced .
• The principles of self management identified in Gaun’ Yersel’: the Self Management Strategy for Scotland are at the heart of the project.

Alongside these core criteria each funding round has a specific focus, the priorities of Self Management for Life, Round 2 are below. Projects must demonstrate their project supports, guides and enables self management in one of the following ways:

1. Supporting people at an early stage in their journey with a long term condition, disability or unpaid caring responsibility, to develop their ability to self manage.
2. Reducing barriers to accessing health and social care support and services, to enable self management for people living with long term conditions, disabilities and/or unpaid carers.
3. Developing the self management capacity of people living with long term conditions, and/or their unpaid carers, while they wait for a specialist health or social care intervention.

Applications for Self Management for Life are now closed.

The fund aims to develop practice and share learning, this is done in a number of ways though our partners in the Scottish Government and through our own Self Management Network. You can find out more about our learning by clicking the learning tab in the sidebar.

Below is an overview of the projects which the ALLIANCE funded for five years. To find out more about any of these projects, simply select, click or tap on one of them.

The ALLIANCE published a podcast discussing the learnings from the Self Management Fund: Transforming Self Management in Scotland – you can learn more by visiting the ALLIANCE Live Roundtable post, or listening directly from ourAnchor.FM page. A flash report is available to download below.

There were four main areas in which having secured, long term funding enhanced the sustainability of self management practice and delivery, and, therefore positively supported both the operation of organisations and individuals’ lives. These areas are time, trust, scope and delivery.

Time

Having longer term funding as opposed to the more common one to two years has brought several benefits. Knowing that funding is available for five years allowed organisations to better expand, to further embed and to create even more sustainable self management engagements. For example, across a wider geographical and socio-economic reach, while, simultaneously building up meaningful connections at both individual and community levels as a result of the longer time available.

Having more time allowed projects to respond to challenges in a reflective way. When issues arose, organisations had the capacity to evaluate the best strategy of action and to change course as required to respond to demands and opportunities. This resulted in even better opportunities for participants to self manage and helped projects to adapt and continue delivering services when, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Trust

Longer, secure funding supported projects to drive a sustained change in attitudes and culture, which in turn allowed individuals to learn more about self management. Projects were able to support people to build up extended engagements and deeper trust not only towards the organisations they received support from but towards themselves as well as to gain acceptance that they are in the driving seat and can have control through self management.

Scope

Due to the characteristics of the Self Management Transforming Fund, organisations offered a wider variety of support as part of their projects. This meant even more diverse self management courses and opportunities, and therefore a better chance for individuals to find engagements that would suit them. Geographical and socio-economic expansion of projects brought self management to previously unreached communities and allowed individuals to feel better able to self manage on their terms.

Continuation of delivery

Across all the nine projects, people’s individual stories expressed joy at having had engagements that they could rely on an ongoing basis. This peace of mind extended to the organisations as well, as, having secure long term funding, they did not need to worry about otherwise annually reoccurring issues such as how they would be able to support individuals should they not secure funding for the year to come.

Having consistency also allowed people to explore their skills and, for example, take on elements of delivery to improve and expand the projects run, enhancing its sustainability and reach, taking self management to people not involved before.

Resources

The ALLIANCE published a podcast discussing the learnings from the Self Management Fund: Transforming Self Management in Scotland – you can learn more by visiting the ALLIANCE Live Roundtable post, or listening directly from our Anchor.FM page (this link will take you away from our website).

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