Health and social care: winter preparedness plan 2024 to 2025

Our Priorities for Winter 2024/25

We have continued to develop upon the priorities set out in last year's winter preparedness plan, to strengthen our approach to whole system planning and delivery. In keeping with our commitment that the focus of this plan is people, we have adjusted our priorities this year to reflect how people experience our health and social care system.

This approach recognises that pressures in one system area can have a knock-on effect on other parts of the system, and meaningful action should consider how services are interdependent on each other.

At the heart of our four priorities for winter, are three key principles which ensure we retain our focus on the individual. These are:

1. Person centred and person led care as embodied through the Getting it Right for Everyone Principles, which aim to ensure a personalised way to access care and support. Ensuring that people are at the centre of decisions that affect them.

2. Strong leadership and partnership working across the whole system.

3. Implementing local and national actions we know work to improve the patient journey, and ultimately which improve outcomes for individuals, such as Discharge Without Delay principles

The fourwinter planning priorities outlined follow a journey through the health and social care system.

• Priority One: Prioritise care for all people in our communities, enabling people to live well with the support they choose and utilise effective prevention to keep people well, avoiding them needing hospital care.
• Priority Two: Ensure people receive the right care, in the right place at the right time, this includes prioritising care at home, or as close to home as possible, where clinically appropriate.
• Priority Three: Maximise capacity and capability to meet demand and maintain integrated health, social care and social work services, protecting planned and established care, to reduce long waits and unmet need.
• Priority Four: Focus on supporting the wellbeing of our health and social care workforce, their capacity and improving retention, as well as valuing and supporting Scotland's unpaid carers.