National Care Service Forum 2022: ministerial speeches

How the National Care Service will affect all of us and how people can get involved in building a service that fits the needs of everyone - Angela Constance, Drug Policy Minister.

Like my colleague Kevin Stewart, I am delighted to be at the first National Care Service Forum.  It’s a privilege to be sharing the platform across the day, with people who are so honestly sharing their experiences. 

Earlier, Kevin Stewart clearly set out our ambition for the National Care Service.  I want to take this opportunity to set out why everybody joining us today, and those beyond, should feel empowered to make getting the National Care Service right their business.

Everyone in Scotland will be touched by the services that will be offered through a National Care Service, at some point in their lives.

It may be that they need care support, or that they have family or friends who do.  Or it may be that they choose to follow a career path offering health and care support.

As Minister for Drugs Policy, I am acutely aware that the National Care Service must meet the needs of people with harmful alcohol and drug use problems.

It is fundamental that the detailed design of the National Care Service responds to the needs of everyone in Scotland.

We must get it right for everyone.  We must see this as opportunity to include people across society in a conversation about their needs.  A National Care Service must ensure that the most marginalised, stigmatised people in our communities are included.  This is the only way we will ensure that moving forward, all people receive the right care at the right time, the treatment they need, when they need it.

We must support people to fully realise their rights in relation to both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.  This means putting the person back at the centre of the whole system.

Person-centred care means people can thrive, not just survive.

The National Care Service is all of our business.  We need to keep people at the heart of this change. This is what co-design does.  It means working in partnership with

• the people who use and deliver health and social care services;
• the organisations which represent them; and
• our delivery partners.

I want to take a moment to reflect on the many different, important roles that the third sector currently play in this space.  The pandemic reinforced that community groups and third sector organisations of all sizes are central to ensuring that people who need care support, and their families, have the assistance with day to day living they need.  

That care and support offered through the third sector very often goes beyond regulated care provision to ensure a better quality of life-based on wellbeing and human rights. It is important that we all recognise this.  That we understand the breadth of input.  And protect and promote this as part of any future design. 

We’ve learnt from the experience of building Social Security Scotland the value of input from people with lived experience.  To ensure successful delivery of Scottish led benefits we put people at the centre of the design.  Thousands of volunteers shaped Social Security Scotland, its products and its ways of working.

The launch of Adult Disability Payment was developed around our principles of dignity, fairness and respect in partnership with people who have experience of Personal Independence Payment.

We made significant changes so people have a positive, compassionate experience when applying for this new payment.

That hard work is now delivering improvements for people and will continue to deliver improvements. We all recognise that as individuals we grow, develop and change throughout our lifetime. Our public services need to be able to respond to that.  We must build on the experience of Social Security Scotland as we work together on a National Care Service.

In my current role as Minister of Drugs Policy I know first-hand the value of including and involving people in delivering change.

In 2021 we set out on a National Mission to save and improve lives in response to the growing numbers of people being harmed by drugs.  People who provide services and people with lived and living experience have been at the heart of this.

Working together, through groups like the Drug Deaths Taskforce, we have co-developed standards for medication-assisted treatment, improved pathways into residential rehabilitation, a stigma strategy, and a framework for delivering services through a whole-family approach.

We put values at the centre of our work to build services reforming the way they seek and reach those needing help. It has meant quick access to life improving and lifesaving support.

The success of those programmes of work is largely down to the close involvement of people with real experience and knowledge of current services and of what has needed to change.

At local level, Alcohol and Drug Partnerships across Scotland have benefited from local panels and forums of people with lived and living experience to help the development and delivery of local services.  And at national level, for drugs I have established a National Collaboration for lived and living experience to ensure it is truly central to the National Mission. 

The collaborative is bringing forward its vision for integrating human rights into national policy and local service design and delivery. It will hold us all to account and ensure that people with experience can participate in the decisions that affect them. It will ask tough questions and demand clear answers.

So, as we look to you for help in developing the National Care Service I can’t stress enough how important your involvement will be based on what I know is happening in my own policy area.

We have talked about the breadth and complexity of this work across our discussions today.  So the sooner we start working together on the detail, the better.

To support us all to work through this we have identified a set of early co-design themes. These are:

• information sharing to improve health and social care support
• realising rights and recognising responsibilities
• keeping health and social care support local
• making sure voices are heard
• and valuing the workforce

Do not worry if these topics do not feel relevant to you or your experience as they will be updated regularly as the design process develops. You will be able to apply to join in at any time to take part in co-design activities.

We launched the Lived Experience Experts Panel on 22 September.

The Panel is for individuals with real experience of using or delivering social care support in Scotland. For those here, there is more information available at the Lived Experience Panel desks.  

For our online delegates we will ensure a web link is sent out to you.

In the future, we’ll be also reaching out to specific groups to get involved – for example children, young people and families, care experienced people, and young carers.     

We recognise the important role partners, providers and stakeholders have to ensure ultimate deliverability of the policies being set.

It’s essential that we learn from your frontline experience of supporting people, to hear from you about what works and what doesn’t.

So we have launched the Stakeholder Register, for those representing an organisation in Scotland with an interest in health and social care.  Full details of how to register can be found online.

I hope that today will inspire you to keep getting involved. We need your voice – we need your experience, background and ideas.

Learning from those with experience is the best way for us to develop an organisation that works for everyone. Together we can build a National Care Service that meets the needs of everyone in Scotland – for you, for your families and for the Scotland of the future.

I look forward to working with you.