Health and Social Care

2023 and the National Care Service

December 21, 2022 by Anna Kynaston No Comments | Category National Care Service

2022 was an important year in progressing the National Care Service (NCS). It was the year where we were able to begin to developing the vision of the Scottish Government – borne out of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care – to build a service that supports people to thrive.

A significant step was made with the introduction of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill to Parliament. Getting to that stage felt like a huge achievement. The NCS principles in the Bill are about putting people back at the heart of social care.

In the last half of 2022, the Parliament began the scrutiny process and this will continue into 2023.

This was only possible as a result of the contributions and time that people with lived experience and our stakeholders have given.  We are very grateful for the levels of engagement and look forward to that continuing through 2023.

What is coming up?

Co-design

In 2023 our programme of co-design of the National Care Service will ramp up. When we talk about co-design, we mean the process of working together with people who have lived and living experience of community health and social care, to ensure policy and services reflects people’s needs. We want to ensure the National Care Service supports everyone in Scotland and working with people who use and know community health and social care is fundamental to this.

Key aspects of our co-design work are the Lived Experience Experts Panel and the Stakeholder Register. In 2023 these groups will participate in more research and help inform how the National Care Service should look. They will be focusing on five key themes, these include;

• information sharing to improve health and social care support
• realising rights and recognising responsibilities
• keeping health and social care support local
• making sure my voice is heard
• valuing the workforce

If you would like to be involved in this work then please register for these groups.

Hearing the voices of community health and social care

We have been out across the country listening to and filming people with experience of community health and social care in Scotland. We have shared some of this with you through the Voices campaign in 2022. In 2023, we will continue to listen to and learn from the diverse range of voices which make up community health and social care in Scotland.

To find out more about the Voices of Campaign, read our blog, the Diverse Voices Shaping the National Care Service. 

We’ll also continue to work closely with our Social Covenant Steering Group and Key Stakeholder Reference Group. These forums represent a diverse range of lived and professional experience across Scotland and allow us to draw from a wide range of experience and expertise.  I am very grateful for all who have contributed to these forums over the last year.

I am really looking forward to the year ahead. We have lots of work to do, but I know together we can continue to design a National Care Service that provides the health and care support people need.

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