On Thursday 29 June, the seventh Annual Performance Report for Shetland Islands Health & Social Care Partnership was presented at the Integration Joint Board meeting.
The report highlighted the significant progress the Health and Social Care Partnership had made in the last year and how it had managed to perform very well when benchmarked across Scotland.
During the meeting, the then Chief Officer of the Integration Joint Board, Brian Chittick said he felt “very privileged” to bring the annual report to the IJB as it highlighted how much progress the partnership had made. He said it was the culmination of work by the partnership and it continues to move forward with the Shifting the Balance of Care Programme and the Strategic Plan, among other streams of work.
Mr Chittick added that he thought the services had been “well and truly tested” but the partnership had managed to sustain and excel in providing person-centred care.
Owing to the success, he said it was down to the strength of the community and gave examples such as the Living Well Hubs and the establishment of multi-disciplinary team working that was strengthened as a result of the system pressures last year but the way of working has since ensured that there is a constant flow of communication and the early need for intervention is flagged earlier. However, he noted that there was still some work to do in terms of service remodelling, embracing digital technology and taking a network approach to providing services.
Chair of the Integration Joint Board Natasha Cornick noted from the report how the Health and Social Care Partnership had experienced a number of challenges over the course of 2022/23 including “workforce challenges, unprecedented system pressure, extreme weather and communication outage incidents” and despite this, staff still managed to sustain services in a quality and person-centred manner. On behalf of the IJB she thanked all staff for their commitment, dedication and hard work over the last year.
Further highlights and successes in relation to the Health and Social Care Partnership over the last year can be found in the detailed report - here
Shetland Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) was formally established in June 2015 in line with the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014. The Integration Joint Board (IJB) oversees the work of the HSCP and is a joint board of Shetland Islands Council and NHS Shetland.