Open Government action plan 2021 to 2025 - commitment 2: health and social care

Progress to March 2025

Commitment 2: health and social care

Milestone

Develop and deliver a first iteration of the ‘design school’ model in key health and social care areas, such as the delivery of the National Care Service.

Progress

The 'Design School' is the name given to the wrap around support and training that is offered to people with lived experience, stakeholder organisations and policy teams to work together on policy and service change. Capacity building and support is currently being delivered in two key areas in health and social care:

• the National Care Service (NCS) programme, which has committed to design with the people who access and deliver social care support and other relevant services
• the Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) Pathfinder Project, in which Health and Social Care Partnership Teams have committed to co-design an adult practice model for health and social care by working with people who access health and social care support and services as well as practitioners and staff

The National Care Service

As of February 2025, the NCS has engaged with 2097 people in co-design activities for the National Care Service, including:

• NCS National Forums in 2022 and 2023
• co-design events on the NCS Charter of Rights and Responsibilities and Information Sharing
• regional forum events in summer 2023
• one-to-one interviews in spring 2023, focused on social care complaints
• sessions with seldom heard voices groups which are run in partnership with key stakeholders
• co-design events for the NCS Workforce Charter in spring 2024
• co-design groups focused on the NCS complaints and redress system and the formation of an NCS National Board

Sessions with seldom heard voices groups will continue through spring 2025.

Reports from co-design activities, including easy read versions, are published on National Care Service - gov.scot

An offer of support is being developed for the NCS Advisory Board on participation, which will help the board to explore the ways people who need, use or deliver community health and social care services should be involved in the development of its recommendations.

GIRFE

The Health and Social Care Partnership teams taking part in the GIRFE pathfinders project have completed the co-design process, having produced a series of prototypes for the priority focus area, the ‘team around the person’. These have been tested with people with lived experience and will be included in the national toolkit.

Alongside the GIRFE toolkit, the outputs from the co-design process and materials to support the implementation phase have been shared with partnership teams to support future engagement with people with lived experience.

The co-design process has been evaluated to understand how the process, materials and tools, as well as coaching support, can be improved for a future iteration. Feedback has been gathered from people who led and delivered the process within the partnerships, as well as people who took part in co-design sessions as participants.

Next steps

The final milestone is to take forward the action plan of improvements from evaluation and feedback so far.

Examples of this include the continued development of guidance and tools such as user journey mapping, which looks at a person’s experience of services and support. This tool was used extensively through the GIRFE co-design work - the analysis of which supported the development focus areas for idea generation and prototype development.

Another approach used through the process was collaborative sensemaking, where teams work together to analyse and make sense of what they have learned.

This was done with participants and partnership teams to support shared learning and to ensure the understanding of the data is as robust as possible.

Improvements will also be made to how teams are prepared and supported to lead co-design projects.

Guidance, training and tools are being reviewed, updated and developed into case studies for future use.

Status

On schedule.

Milestone

Support the newly established Lived Experience Expert Panel and Stakeholder Register to meaningfully participate in decision-making within health and social care. 

Progress

The Lived Experience Experts Panel (LEEP) is the main route to take part in the co-design of the National Care Service (NCS).

There are 561 people currently registered on LEEP.

The NCS Stakeholder Register is open to any organisation or group interested in contributing to the design and implementation of the NCS, and engages a wide range of stakeholders, including service providers, care professionals, advocacy groups, and other organisations.

There are currently 292 registered stakeholders.

A design and participation team is responsible for making sure that everyone can participate in the co-design process.

This team:

• provides necessary support, such as assistive technologies, interpreters, or alternative formats, to facilitate involvement
• identifies and addresses potential barriers to participation, such as language, mobility, or digital access
• offers materials and communications in formats that are easy to understand and access, ensuring broad comprehension such as our Plain English and Easy Read newsletters, as well as offering communication via mail or telephone for those who prefer those options
• regularly reviews and improves accessibility measures to meet the needs of all participants

The last update was sent to members in February and opportunities to take part will be advertised as they arise. The team also runs a helpline for anyone wanting to enquire about anything related to the NCS co-design activity.

Next steps

Anyone on the LEEP and NCS Stakeholder Register will receive ongoing updates on activities – the next newsletter will go out in March/April. Applications remain open and individuals and organisations can join LEEP and the NCS Stakeholder Register at any time during co-design activity using Get involved in designing the National Care Service (NCS)

Status

On schedule.

Milestone

Develop and agree an approach to assessing impact and learning from co-design activities across health and social care.

Progress

The co-design maturity matrix is being developed to support teams to consider what good looks like for co-design, covering key criteria such as capacity and capability for co-design, senior sponsorship, and implementation of design decisions. This will form the basis of the evaluation frameworks to support teams to measure and improve their co-design activities.

The co-design maturity matrix has been developed further following feedback sessions. The materials being developed to support the self-assessment process, include a series of prompts and examples of evidence to demonstrate good practice. This is aimed at supporting improvement planning activities, rather than assurance.

The evaluation framework is based on the criteria of the maturity matrix – and is being developed for re-use across co-design projects more generally.

Next steps

A draft of the updated tool will be shared with stakeholders for testing in April.

Status

On schedule.

Milestone

Continue to develop the remit and role of the civic society group to play an active and ongoing role as a critical friend, supporting the development and progress of co-design activity across health and social care.

Progress

An update was shared with the Third Sector Health and Social Care Collaborative in November. The next meeting is 19 March.

Next steps

The Collaborative has a specific standing item on the quarterly meeting for OGP progress updates, to offer critique and peer support more generally. The next meeting is 19 March.

Materials and links will be shared with the Collaborative on any co-design guidance (such as the updated co-design maturity matrix in April) and workstream activities (such as the NCS co-design reports) to develop an ongoing feedback loop with the group.

Status

On schedule.