Health and Social Care

Spotlight on: Eibhlin McHugh, Chief Officer for Midlothian

November 28, 2014 by Linda White No Comments | Category Spotlight

What background brought you to the position of Chief Officer?

Prior to my appointment, I was Director of Housing and Community Care at Midlothian Council. My background is in social work and I have worked across a range of children and families, and adults services for the past 30 thirty years, both as a practitioner and manager.

What model of integration has been chosen?

We’ve chosen the Body Corporate model which we hope will go live in June 2015. The shadow board is in place, preparing for the challenges ahead, visiting services and meeting people who use services.

What are the challenges ahead?

Demographics and addressing health inequalities are the big challenges. On a positive note, we have already gone through transformation, which ensures the sustainability of services going forward. Our communities in Midlothian are our major assets, as we explore new ways of working with them to enhance their capacity to the needs of the more vulnerable and support more people to live longer, healthier lives in the community.

What benefits do you anticipate for people who use services?

People who use services will experience person-centred care from professionals. This will mean professionals working together to support people who use services, to achieve the outcomes that are important for them.

We want to ensure that people with long term conditions who use services are supported throughout their whole journey and that they will get the right support when they need it. This will mean more preventive work, post-diagnostic support and building resilience for the journey ahead.

We aim to deliver care closer to home by building the capacity of our community services, strengthening informal community networks and supporting family carers.  This is so important to preventing social isolation and enhancing wellbeing.

What workforce planning is needed?

The biggest impact will come from cultural, not structural, changes. As managers, we must work in genuine partnership across the public sector, recognising the power of integrated partnership working to tackle health inequalities. We must move from delivering services to co-producing new models of services with local communities. Managers will create a whole new context that will enable professionals to reshape their roles and engage differently with people who use services and communities.

For professionals, the changes are primarily about moving to multidisciplinary teams and networks of services working together around communities, respecting and valuing each other’s roles. Key to this transition is strong professional leadership.

We must make working in health and care attractive by creating better career pathways and supporting our staff across all sectors.

To find out more about the integration of health and social care in Midlothian, contact Eibhlin McHugh.

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