Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework
The Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework provides a high-level guide for change, to ensure the sustainability, efficiency, quality, and accessibility of health and social care services in Scotland.
Foreword
Our health and social care system is at a critical juncture. The challenges are well known, including shifting demographics, growing demand, the impacts of a changing climate on people’s health, and increasing financial pressures. We must respond strongly to these challenges and see them as introducing both necessities and opportunities to transform how the health and social care system works for the people of Scotland. We are grasping this opportunity through bold reform to health and social care.
Our shared ambition between Scottish Government and Local Government is to ensure people of all ages are able to live well, with the right support, and to lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. National and Local Government have a shared responsibility to create the conditions for this to happen, and this Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework (SRF) is a step towards setting out how we will work together to achieve this. This Framework sets out how we will shift the balance to enable a community-orientated approach to health and social care which, in turn, will contribute to better integration of services to meet individuals’ and families’ needs.
Together, the changes set out in this Framework will deliver our vision for health and social care. They will progress reform to ensure long-term financial sustainability, reduce health and care inequalities, further harness the benefits of digital technology, and improve health outcomes for people in Scotland.
The impact of this reform for the people of Scotland will be significant. The system will be reshaped to focus on delivering the outcomes that matter to the people we support and care for, and empowering people to be more in in charge of the care they receive. Building the capacity of, and access to, primary and community care means access to high quality care will be easier and more equitable.[1] At the same time, we will further develop centres of excellence, building on the success of our National Treatment Centres, and ensuring that those who need more acute and complex treatment can access this more quickly.
This will have significant implications and opportunities for the health and social care workforce. Our staff comprise the very fabric of our health and social care system and are our greatest asset. Our commitment is to work collaboratively with them to build capacity and rebalance resources to enable this shift to the community. This will require new ways of thinking and planning, as well as working together in different ways. This Framework provides the guidance and authority for system and service leaders, as well as staff, to plan and deliver the key transformations needed to realise our vision for health and social care in Scotland.
The changes we are setting out will help us seize the opportunities presented by the rise of innovation, digital, and treatment advances, helping to shape a health and social care system that is efficient, high quality, and good value for money. This approach will also rely on Scotland’s excellent public research institutions who are producing world leading research and development that offer the opportunity of new clinical insights and ways of working. Critically, the changes must respond to the challenging financial environment and achieve sustainability for the health and social care system.
Now is the time for courage and a shared commitment to change. The time for organisations, the people who deliver health and social care and, of course, the people of Scotland themselves, to come together and collectively design and deliver the transformation required. Only by collective action can we build a system that supports longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives for all.