Health and Social Care

Guest blog by Gail Lumsden from NHS 24 on the CIS redesign project

July 29, 2014 by Eilidh Smith No Comments | Category Uncategorized

My role as Partnership and Engagement Officer at NHS 24 Health Information Services is a varied one, meaning can mean one day I can be out speaking to mums at Mother and Toddler events at the local library, managing a stand at the National NHSScotland Annual conference to discussing our process and governance procedures around the creation of new content.

Over the next 6 months a large proportion of my time will be spent working on the Care Information Scotland redesign work. This will mean I have a variety of hats on as I will be arranging and facilitating user engagement sessions with stakeholders to discuss the look and feel of the new website and also meeting partners to discuss the creation of new content.

So it’s another sunny day in Glasgow that I head over to Princes Square to meet Becca Gatherum the Policy & Communications Officer at Scottish Care. Becca sits on our Advisory Group for the Care Information Scotland redesign work alongside members of Age Scotland, Carers Scotland, Shared Care Scotland, Carers Trust, The Care Inspectorate, Citizens Advice Scotland and COSLA to name a few.

Currently Care Information Scotland is a telephone and online service available for people seeking information about care services for older people. The redesign will significantly extend the scope of Care Information Scotland, bringing together quality assured care information accessible to all carers, those being cared for and carer support services across Scotland. The group is there to support us produce a service that is fit for purpose and person-centred.

Although Becca and I have met briefly at Advisory Group Meetings it’s always good to catch up outwith as it gives both us and our stakeholders an opportunity to focus upon expectations of the new service. We grab a seat and have a wee chat about the weather and of course the Commonwealth Games. We then get down to business and I start by asking Becca to give me some background about Scottish Care and about her role with them since she joined in 2012.

Becca is the Policy & Communications Officer at Scottish Care which is a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2000 to give independent care providers a single, professional unified voice. This collective voice enables them to work with key partners in the health and social care sector. They have over 400 members from all over Scotland which include private and voluntary organisations who run care homes, day care centres, home care and housing support services and respite care facilities.

I always find it useful to start with an overview of the organisation as although this information is readily available on websites, it isn’t until you get a discussion started that you can really see where you can work in partnership with an organisation and see how you can support each other’s aims and objectives.

Becca is already supporting redesign work as she has included information about the Care Information Scotland redesign bulletin in Scottish Care’s last Bulletin to her members and she confirms she is happy to continue taking regular updates from us, which is great news.

We also discuss upcoming work around the review of new content and website design and Becca advises that she believes their 400 members and local representatives would be interested in getting involved. We talk about the types of information and content that she thinks would be of particular interest to her members which includes; complaints process, funding and continuing care.

As part of my role includes attending conferences with exhibition stands to promote Care Information Scotland and other NHS 24 services such as NHS inform and Smokeline, we talk about Scottish Care’s next Annual Care Home Conference in November where the theme for the event is Care in Transition. I have had a stand in the past at Scottish Care events but we also discuss the possibility of having a speaker slot – maybe one to pass on to my boss as doing formal presentations always fills me full of dread!

Our pots of tea and those lovely Portuguese custard tarts are finished and it is time for us to pack up and head back to our respective offices. We promise to email information over to each other and pick anything else up at the next Advisory Group meeting.

Look out for other snippets of stakeholder meetings soon as I’m doing the rounds!

If you would like to keep up to date with the Care Information Scotland redesign work, we can send you the latest bulletin, so please do get in touch by emailing CISRedesign@nhs24.net. Further background information can be found on the Care Information Scotland Redesign 2014 page.

Comments