National Care Service: questions and answers - engagement sessions

Co-Design

What is Co-Design?

• Co-Design is the process of understanding what people need to achieve a certain outcome, and the creation of all the processes and changes needed to deliver that outcome within the constraints of what is possible or available.

What is the Scottish Government doing to co-design?

• Ministers have been clear that the National Care Service must be designed together with the people who access and deliver social care support.
• In the case of the National Care Service that means understanding what is needed to ensure social care support and other relevant services are fit for purpose. People who access and deliver social care support are experts in how current delivery of social care support works and can identify how we can improve outcomes.
• People working in national and local government and other organisations with experience in delivering social care support, or managing programmes of change, will bring a different set of important skills and expertise.
• The Scottish Government is designing the National Care Service in partnership, building a shared understanding, imagining a better future, and putting in place what is needed to deliver it.
• The National Care Service is there for everyone, so it is important that the co-design process is accessible and inclusive, and that we have representation from a diverse range of people with different experiences and other relevant services and we are committed to giving a strong voice to those who rely on social care, unpaid carers, and the workforce, listening to their needs and acting on what they tell us.

How can we register our interest in co-design?

• We have launched a Lived Experience Experts Panel and hope to include between 1000 to 1500 people on the panel.
• You can register for the Lived Experience Panel here: Get involved in designing the National Care Service
• Co-design work will continue throughout the course of this parliament and will continue to inform the design, delivery and continuous improvement of the National Care Service over the coming years.
• It's also important that delivery partners and other key stakeholder organisations are involved in planning and developing the National Care Service.
• That's why we have created a National Care Service Stakeholder Register – so we can build an understanding of which organisations want to take part in future co-design activities.
• We have already been working with lots of organisations on the development of the National Care Service up to now, but we still want to hear from both existing partners and new ones.
• You can sign up for the stakeholder register here: Get involved in designing the National Care Service (NCS)

How will you ensure there are no barriers to co-design?

• The National Care Service is for everyone and we want to hear from everyone. We are consulting with stakeholder groups who have lived experience, to find out how best to support people joining the Lived Experience Experts Panel, to feel comfortable and confident to take part in design and research.
• We will prioritise involving people who face additional barriers to engaging, whose needs are particularly complex, or who belong to protected groups as defined in the Equality Act.
• We will develop a range of options to encourage people to contribute in a way that suits them, this may include face to face discussions, telephone discussions or correspondence by post.
• You will be able to register your interest to join the Lived Experience Expert Panel at any time.

How will you co-design national and local structures?

• The Scottish Government will co-design parts of the National Care Service that will operate at national level with people who access and deliver community health and social care support. This will include a Charter of Rights, a national complaints process, and an electronic social care and health record.
• We will work in partnership with local government, the NHS and other key partners, as the integration of health and social care has been the shared ambition of national and local government for many years. Working together and sharing our collective experiences is key to getting change right.
• We will engage with stakeholders and experts – people with lived experience of the service, people accessing care and support, their families, NHS management and clinical staff, around the integration of community health and social care to deliver better outcomes for people.
• Local care boards working together, across local boundaries, as part of the National Care Service and working in partnership with the NHS, local authorities, third and independent sectors, will improve support for people at a regional and national level.
• In their local areas, local care boards will work with partners to ensure that support and services for people are safe, effective, seamless, and person centred. Local people will be embedded in the design, development, and delivery of support and services.
• We will consider how best to ensure effective joint working with other services such as housing, education, and policing through co-design with stakeholders, including representatives from integration authorities, health and social care partnerships, local government, health boards, primary and community care, carers and service users.