National falls and fracture prevention strategy 2019-2024 draft: consultation

Taking the strategy forward

We know that preventing harm from falls is not the preserve of any one part of Scottish Government, or any one profession, service or organisation. We will be working across Government and with partners in all sectors to take the strategy forward and exploit a broad range of opportunities to reduce harm from falls. In doing so, we look to create a culture of partnership in which we take collective action, maximising and respecting the contribution of all partners.

To take the strategy forward, we will:

• consult publicly on how best to deliver its outcomes, ambitions and commitments
• develop an implementation plan to support delivery of the commitments over the next five years
• develop a communication strategy involving networks, groups, patient and carer groups and bodies from across sectors, and including social media
• convene a Falls and Fracture Prevention Collaborative to inform, shape and endorse the implementation plan.

In addition, the Technology Enabled Care Programme will continue to work closely with Local Government Digital Office, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Digital Health and Care Institute, housing authorities and agencies and many other partners to support local technology enabled care delivery plans that increase the use of proven technologies.

Essential enablers of strategy implementation will be:

• collaboration
• co-production, including carer involvement
• shared but clear leadership
• education, learning and development for the public, those planning and delivering services for older people and others at high risk across all sectors, and those designing lived environments
• links with research and academia

• technology to share information, support self-management, identify and manage risk, and deliver interventions
• data and intelligence to understand the challenges and measure progress and impacts.

Finally, we need to be flexible and dynamic. New evidence is emerging on how we can best enable and support people to experience healthy ageing, avoiding frailty, falls and fragility fractures. This includes providing new technologies to support people to keep well, identifying risk of falls before they happen, providing a rapid response when they do, and assisting in delivering evidence-based interventions that can reduce harmful falls.