Self-directed support strategy 2010-2020: implementation plan 2019-2021

Understanding our progress

The impact and learning of each project in this plan will be identified, aggregated and reported on to ensure that the desired progress is being made and to inform other workstreams within the reform programme.

Project and programme goals have been identified for each strand of activity. Progress will be tracked through the reform of adult social care programme management and governance structures, and self-directed support will be considered across all of its workstreams.

We aim to collect data which demonstrates the impact of the reform programme as it develops. In the short term this will focus on structural and organisational changes and system adaptation, including investment patterns. In the longer term, focus will shift towards impacts on outcomes for local and national populations and infrastructure.

This work will be informed by research commissioned by Scottish Government in 2017 to:

• review existing evidence on self-directed support and similar policies, internationally, highlight significant gaps in Scottish evidence, and propose effective ways we could fill these in the future;
• assess of the feasibility of establishing the resource implications of self-directed support; and
• document a number of case studies of standard examples of self-directed support in practice, from the point of view of service users and their families and of service providers.

Both this review and the evidence from the joint Scottish Government - COSLA discussion paper on adult social care reform highlight that more requires to be done to ensure that nationally collected data captures the outcomes and measures that matter to people and enable system improvement.

Under the reform programme, we will move towards a data and evidence framework that recognises the purpose of social care support. This will be underpinned by process and systems measures that track progress towards the shared vision for adult social care. This will be linked to the health and wellbeing outcomes.

Ongoing development of policy and practice and the data and evidence framework will draw on a wide range of evidence, including:

• Social Care Survey
• Health and Social Care Experience survey
• Support in the Right Direction six-monthly programme reports
• SDSS and ALLIANCE surveys of supported people's experience
• Audit Scotland scrutiny
• Care Inspectorate and HIS Service Inspection Reports
• Care Inspectorate and HIS Strategic Inspection Reports
• Evaluation of specific projects and programmes
• Health and Social Care Partnership Strategic Commissioning Plans
• Health and Social Care Partnership Performance Reports
• Ongoing learning from activity contained in this implementation plan