Planning for Excellence in Health and Social Care
The Dundee Integration Joint Board (IJB) is the group of people responsible for planning, agreeing and monitoring community-based health, social work and social care services for adults. They must agree a plan that sets out the IJB’s ambition and priorities for health, social work and social care services in Dundee and how they plan to use the resources they have to make this ambition a reality. The plan also describes how health and social care services will be delivered and improved; these are the services delivered by Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership. The Health and Social Care Partnership is the place where Dundee City Council, NHS Tayside and some organisations in the third and independent sector work together to deliver the services and supports the IJB has planned and agreed.
The IJB published their last strategic plan in 2019 – you can read it here. In 2022 the IJB reviewed that plan and decided to extend it for one more year while they worked to produce a new replacement plan – you can read the extension to the plan here. The IJB and the Health and Social Care Partnership are current working towards the 2019 plan and extension.
Over the last year the IJB has been working to develop a long-term strategic plan for health and social care in Dundee. This has involved working with the Health and Social Care Partnership, hearing from people who use health and social care services and supports, unpaid carers and members of the public, members of the health and social care workforce and the workforce in partner agencies.
Some of the key things that people have said so far are:
- The next plan must set out an aim or ambition for the IJB – the existing vision statement might not be achievable in practice; it is too broad and doesn’t mean much to the public.
- The future plans should be more explicit about reducing inequalities and about early intervention and prevention.
- The IJB’s principles and values should be stated.
- Important areas that need to be included in the next plan are: accessibility, transparent information about services and supports, personalisation, and self-care and empowerment.
- People are concerned about the cost of living, capacity in the health and social care workforce and the amount of money available to public sector organisations to support the provision of care and support.
- Communication and information are critical – information must be in plain language and a variety of formats should be used. This includes information about services and supports available.
What people said has been considered alongside information about the health and social care needs of people in Dundee, national policy and local policy to develop a draft Strategic Commissioning Framework 2023-2033. From now until the end of May 2023 the IJB is inviting people to share their views about the draft framework – you can read the draft and find out how to give your views here.