Information on Allied Health Professionals and the Near Me initiative:: FOI release

Information requested

1) Has a review into the strategic requirements for Allied Health Professionals Education been established? If so, what is the timescale for its reporting?

2) What progress has been made on introducing Near Me, the video consulting service, to social care services, including care homes and housing support?

Response

1) Has a review into the strategic requirements for Allied Health Professionals Education been established? If so, what is the timescale for its reporting?

Response: The AHP Education and Workforce Policy Review is due to be completed with high level recommendations by mid-November 2022. Advice will be sent to the Cabinet Secretary for approval by the end of November 2022 and an implementation plan will be published thereafter.

2) What progress has been made on introducing Near Me, the video consulting service, to social care services, including care homes and housing support?

Response: The rollout of Near Me within Social Care had been progressed through 3 phases:

• Phase 1 - Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (Iriss) Social Care project (September 2020 – Mar 2021) Iriss was commissioned by the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care programme to lead the work in partnership with the National NHS (National Health Service) Near Me team.
• Phase 2 - Care Home Care Reviews (December 2020 - February 2021) A joint programme with the Scottish Government’s Office of the Chief Social Work Advisors and the Near Me Programme (Digital Health and Care Directorate), was established to support the use of Near Me in care home care reviews.
• Phase 3 - Duty Social Work (September 2021 – June 2022) this work was taken forward following successful scale up with the care home care reviews.

Further detail on the work outlined above and the latest progress on introducing Near Me to social care can be found in the Near Me in Social work Learning Report which was published in July 2022.

In regard to Housing, we are currently working in collaboration with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) to support the development of Near Me supported services across the sector.

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