National Care Service: Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework for Adult Social Care Support and Community Health (SLIF) co-design report - easy read

Part 2: National Care Service: Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework (SLIF) for Adult Social Care Support and Community Health – seldom heard voices co-design work

What we learned

Some important topics came up in the discussions.

People said the important topics were:

• being more involved
• being more active
• better working services

Being more involved

People say that feeling connected and getting support in their communities would help them live a good life.

People said this would help them feel:

• connected to others
• joyful
• in control of their lives

They also said it would help better mental health and stronger social relationships.

Other things we heard were:

• Disabled people, and people with mental health challenges said it was very important to feel respected and included

• disabled people said feeling connected and supported would help them feel more confident, more in control, and more independent

Being more active

People said that being involved in looking after their own health and wellbeing would mean care and support is:

• stable
• personal
• suited to the whole person

People said looking after their own health and wellbeing would help them feel understood.

It would make it easier to get services and feel better about themselves.

Other points around this included:

• disabled people and others with lived experience said support should change as their needs change

• many people said it’s important to have clear communication and easy to understand information

• being treated as an individual while getting care and support made people feel respected and valued

Better working services

People tell us if services worked together better, it would be easier for people to get what they need relating to:

• care
• support
• information

Other points around this included:

• Gypsy and Traveller communities and people with Alzheimer’ s said having one main person to contact would make things easier

• Care and support should respect people’s culture.

• when services work well together, it can improve people’s health and help disabled people do more of the things that matter to them

• people want support to understand their rights and to find the right help

What’s next

The Scottish Government are still working to improve the social care support system.

The Care Reform (Scotland) Bill has now had formal agreement by the King and became an Act of the Scottish Parliament.

An Act is a law passed by Scottish Parliament.

The interim Advisory Board is set up and had its first meeting in May 2025.

The interim Advisory Board is a group of people who will work together until the final Advisory Board is set up.

Soon the final board will be set up. This will be done after a fair and open appointments process.

What is next for Scottish Learning and Improvement Framework (SLIF)

We are making a tool to help local areas use the SLIF. We’re working with Matter of Focus and local partners to design it.

The tool will help local areas:

• see where they are
• track progress
• understand if their efforts are improving people’s lives

We’ll use insights from this report to shape the tool.

This will help us make sure we are helping people in a way that matters to them.

How you can get involved

We want to hear from as many people as we can. This will help us improve social care, social work and community health.

If you would like to share your experiences you can join our Lived Experience Expert Panel.