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

Progress to September 2024

Commitment 2: Health and Social Care progress updates

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 and next steps

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.

Design school 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 their service users as well as practitioners and staff

A full schedule of co-design events is being planned for delivery up to February 2025, with 59 sessions expected to take place across workstreams.

This includes:

• 39 Seldom Heard Voice co-design sessions
• 16 co-design group sessions
• 4 local authority service design group sessions

The seldom heard voice co-design sessions are a continuation of grant funding arrangements with a range of third sector organisations, aiming to reach groups under-represented in the work so far. Organisations involved in this work are:

• Minority Ethnic Carers of Older People Project (MECOPP)
• Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH)
• Action for Children
• Alzheimer’s Scotland
• Sacro
• Homeless Network Scotland
• Cemvo
• the Scottish Commission for people with Learning Disabilities (SCLD)
• Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA)

The co-design group sessions bring together policy leads from Scottish Government with people with lived experience (including staff who deliver services) to look at the topics:

• complaints and redress
• governance and representation
• learning and improvement
• procurement
• independent Advocacy
• access and support

These sessions are being designed to ensure the power dynamics are well considered and all those who take part have an equal voice in the session, with facilitation support and safeguarding mechanisms in place for all participants.

Introductory sessions are being held with participants to prepare them fully for what is being asked from them from each workstream. Materials are produced with information in accessible formats, such as Easy Read, and inclusive sessions are planned for both virtual and face-to-face settings.

Next steps

These sessions, and the analysis and review of outputs, will continue until February. Co-design reports and outputs will be published on gov.scot as they are produced, with feedback from participants driving improvements where they are required.

Progress: Getting it right for everyone (GIRFE)

The Health and Social Care Partnership teams taking part in the GIRFE pathfinders project have completed the final stage of 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 refined for the first draft of the national toolkit which will be published in the autumn.

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 documents are in their final stages, with feedback captured from those involved being incorporated into the report.

Next steps

The co-design process is being evaluated to understand how the process, materials and tools, as well as coaching support, can be improved for a future iteration. The findings will be shared, along with the outputs of the GIRFE process as part of the wider knowledge sharing exercise.

The evaluation process will support the ongoing improvement of the ‘design school’ support model, with materials and guidance updated based on feedback from participants.

Examples of this include the continued development of tools such as user journey mapping, which looks at the holistic experience of the service user, to understand where support and services can be improved and to pinpoint opportunities for change. 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 key 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.

Guidance 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 and next steps

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

Co-design groups have been established to offer detailed feedback on the co-design topics. Comprising three groups of 12 participants, these groups will meet at least six times throughout the year to provide insights.

In August, the co-design groups met for their initial onboarding sessions. Remuneration arrangements are in place.

Next steps

Participants will continue to meet until winter 2024.

Anyone on the LEEP and NCS Stakeholder Register will receive ongoing updates on activities via a newsletter.

Applications remain open and individuals and organisations can join LEEP and NCS Stakeholder Register at any time during co-design activity.

Status

On schedule.

Milestone

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

Progress and next steps

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

Analysis of the evaluation process for GIRFE and information sharing to support future projects.

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 and next steps

The Third Sector Health and Social Care Collaborative is supporting in the civic society group role. This group will act as a critical friend to support the development of guidance, methods and tools, and support the development of future milestones.

A workshop was held with the Collaborative to discuss the Open Government Partnership in July, which included:

• an overview of the Health and Social Care commitment
• progress to date
• a general discussion about co-design and previous experiences
• a deep dive session into the co-design maturity matrix

Feedback is being fed into the materials and progress will be shared at the next meeting.

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 September and the group has agreed to move to a bi-monthly schedule, in part of accommodating their emerging OGP role.

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

Status

On schedule.