Health and Social Care

It’s all about Working in Partnership

April 30, 2015 by Linda White No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Jo MacLennan is Head of Partnership Development within the Integration and Reshaping Care Division at the Scottish Government. She’s spent a large part of her career working nationally in Special NHS Boards including – NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service concentrating on health and service improvement initiatives. Jo previously worked in the Public Service Reform and the Public Bodies Division  in the Scottish Government.
1. As Head of Partnership Development, what is does your role entail?  

Over the last six months, I’ve been focused on enhancing our relationships with the 31 Health and Social Care Partnerships by building up a stronger evidence base of how each of the Partnerships operate, learning about their priorities and challenges and how we can best support and apply our skills to enable them to deliver successfully for integration.

We know that a ‘one size fits all’ approach won’t meet the needs of our population, and therefore strengthening locality planning and giving local areas ownership of the integration agenda will enable flexibility and the scope for them to flourish. The health and social care integration principles have been designed to allow Partnerships to tailor services locally according to the character and requirements of the people and places they serve.

All Health and Social Care Partnerships have now submitted their Integration Schemes, and these are in the process of being reviewed via the official Parliamentary process. To mark the progress and success of the integration journey so far, we hosted a national one day event ‘Leading for Better Outcomes’ for Executive Leaders on March 30, 2015. It was an important milestone to pause for thought and reflect, but also to look ahead to the next stage of the challenge.  There was strong Ministerial presence and support for the event including the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, as well as Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing & Sport, Shona Robison and Minister for Local Government & Community Empowerment, Marco Biagi.

2. What is the role of the Scottish Government going forward into implementation?

I believe that the Scottish Government, in collaboration with its stakeholders and partners, have a critical role to engage and support the new Partnership areas and we will continue to work closely with the Chief Officer’s and their respective leadership teams to build and enhance their locality planning processes to help to share learning and development. By enhancing relationships and connecting people with one another, this will enable us to reinforce the vision and rationale as to why integration is so important. Our goal is to help to raise the profile and progress of the Partnerships and to ignite the pace and scale of the integration process.

We also need to work closely with the new Integrated Joint Boards to connect each of the key players and transform the delivery of services at both a strategic and operational level. Building and retaining multi-faceted communication channels will be integral to the success of this work.

3. What will it take for Integration to be a success?

It’s an exciting time to be working in health and social care and to be involved in reshaping traditional systems of care that have been established for over a hundred years. The changes we are proposing aren’t going to happen overnight though. Our Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, recently stated that the changes we are striving to implement are nothing short of a ‘mega reform’ for Scotland’s public services.

I believe for integration to be a true success, we all need to demonstrate a passionate commitment that is bound by integrity, honesty, trust, respect and above all, a desire to collaborate at all levels. These values and beliefs should be visible regardless of our role or position.

We are very privileged to work on this agenda and to have the opportunity to improve the lives and outcomes for people. I’m personally looking forward to the next stage of this journey and working in this new and exciting world of integration.

Contact Jo MacLennan, Head of Partnership Development – Integration at jo.maclennan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Tags: Collaboration, Localities, Partnership Working, Respect

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