Social care support reform: summary of discussion paper responses

5. Collective leadership

The questionnaire also asked stakeholders how the national programme could enable partners (relevant organisations, teams, individuals, etc.) across local and national levels to work together to establish collective leadership for the programme..

The topics stakeholders felt were important for collective leadership of the programme included:

• Ensuring sufficient and equitable/appropriate representation of a full range of interests;
• Including people who use social care support;
• Establishing mechanisms for collective decision-making;
• Getting the right 'balance' of involvement of people in senior positions and those working in social work and social care;
• Having and committing to a shared vision for adult social care, and a common, "solution-focused" approach to the programme;
• Clearly defining goals, expectations, roles and responsibilities;
• Using new networks or forums, and/or using "existing models for engagement, such as Health and Social Care chief officers group, community planning managers, Third Sector Interfaces etc." (quote from the public sector);
• Aligning work that is already underway with the work that arises from the programme;
• Engaging with other related policy agendas (mental health was provided as a specific example);
• Co-ordinating activity between different partners (e.g. Scottish Government, Health and Social Care Partnerships, third sector organisations etc.);
• Creating a comprehensive communication and engagement strategy;
• "engaging teams where the leaders involved don't have (or choose not to use) traditional control mechanisms (such as Key Performance Indicators) or management styles (such as 'command and control')." (quote from the third sector);
• Learning from successful examples of collective leadership. Examples provided were:

"The overnight support redesign national programme, developed by HIS [Healthcare Improvement Scotland] with input from a range of other national partners, worked with 13 Health and Social Care Partnerships and demonstrated in practice the value of mutual support and shared learning in delivering person led change." (quote from the public sector)

"One potential approach to providing practical implementation support is through the use of Redesign Collaboratives. These consist of national bodies working with locality based teams to work through a topic specific redesign issue together. They can support health and social care partnerships to develop awareness, understanding and capability." (quote from the public sector)

"The recently established National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group provides one model of a mixed membership body charged with overseeing delivery of the new national policy" (quote from a third sector organisation)