Developing the Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework for Adult Social Care Support and Community Health (SLIF) Digital Tool

Summary

The SLIF digital tool has been developed to support the testing and implementation of the Draft Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework for Adult Social Care Support and Community Health (the SLIF).

The Tool aims to support community health and social care support organisations to provide services that actively improve outcomes for people. It also aims to address gaps in policy implementation through engaging in a structured and evidence-informed process of self-evaluation.

The Tool is designed to support the strategic vision for health and social care presented jointly in the Population Health Framework, the Health and Social Care Services Renewal Framework, and the NHS Operational Improvement Plan, alongside supporting effective implementation of key policies, legislation, good practice guidelines and quality improvement frameworks.

The work to develop the SLIF digital tool was led by Matter of Focus and a cross-sector Short Life Working Group. Developing the Tool involved engaging with people with lived and living experience of using services to understand what improvement would mean to them, as well as more than 100 people from diverse health and social care support organisations, in addition to representatives from relevant policy teams.

This work has led to the development of a Tool which will support the testing of the framework in Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) to improve their work using four core thematic pathways: Supporting People; Workforce Development; Ethical Commissioning and Procurement and Integrated Joint Board Governance and Outcomes. The Tool can be used on a standalone basis or across an HSCP to generate systematic evidence of progress towards strategic aims and the National Health and Wellbeing Outcomes.

There is scope to further develop the Tool, both through refinement of the existing pathways and through the development of new pathways targeted at specific aspects of health and social care practice, for example Adult Support and Protection.

The SLIF digital tool is currently at prototype stage. Once the Tool has been tested and any necessary amendments made, a live version will be published for a pilot period before planned widescale implementation.

To be effective, the SLIF digital tool will need to be continually updated in line with policy and good practice and some ongoing support for implementation will be required.