Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) is currently planning for the review of our current Strategic Plan with a view to developing a new plan that will cover the period 2023 – 26. We’re taking a different approach to reviewing our current plan and developing a new one this time around, with much more emphasis on co-production with the support of our partners in the third and independent sectors.

In planning for the review of the Strategic Plan, we’re currently identifying a range of partners, including groups, organisations, people with lived and living experience and relevant staff from within the HSCP, who can assist us with planning our approach to engagement for the plan’s review. Essentially what this means is speaking to people who know our service users, patients and carers, or those with an interest in the health and social care services we are responsible for, to make sure that our approach to engaging with them offers the best opportunity to tell us what they think of the current plan, and what the next plan should look like. We think this will then give us the best chance of developing a Strategic Plan that captures the priorities and aspirations of the people in the city much more comprehensively than in the past. 

Once we’ve identified partners who are willing and able to help us with this, the intention is to learn from them and take their advice on how best to approach members of the various communities of place, interest and identity across the city. 

Councillor Jennifer Layden, Chair of our Integration Joint Board’s (IJB) Public Engagement Committee endorses this approach: “We think it’s really important to consult with the experts to develop a truly co-produced approach to engaging with people across the city to review the Strategic Plan. These are organisations, individuals and groups who have spent time during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic working out the best ways to communicate and engage with the people who they work with. We’ve much to learn from them, and by asking for their advice and making best use of their expertise the engagement effort for the review of the plan will reach more people, including those whom we have traditionally found it more difficult to reach. I’m excited and interested to see how this new approach to engagement evolves, and I would encourage you to get involved if you can.”

Of course, a big part of this approach is understanding the new engagement methods that have emerged recently, such as virtual meetings and digital communication. And we do of course have to be constantly aware of and compliant with the latest advice and guidance on social gatherings and interaction as we recover from the pandemic. However, the intention is, wherever and whenever possible, to combine new engagement approaches with the more traditional methods we are all used to, such as face-to-face engagement, to make sure our approach offers opportunities to engage for as many people as possible.  

At all times as we plan and implement the engagement and consultation approach for the review of the Strategic Plan we’re referring to our own Participation and Engagement Strategy and our good practice guidelines for consultation and engagement. The strategy and guidelines are there for us as an HSCP and for staff as individuals to refer to, in order to ensure we make best use of consultation and engagement activity, reduce duplication and guard against consultation fatigue. 

We’ve also developed a Communications Strategy for the review of the Strategic Plan. This was considered and approved by our IJB’s Public Engagement Committee last month as part of a regular update on progress of the review to the Committee.  The Communications Strategy lays out our approach to communications whilst reviewing the plan so our partners and stakeholders can know what to expect whilst the review is underway. A key element of our communications approach is the use of social media, and once we’ve developed and approved our engagement approach with our partners you will start to see activity on our HSCP Twitter and Facebook profiles, as well as those of our partners. 

A dedicated web page on our website has also been launched as an area to share a range of information in relation to the review of the Strategic Plan. From the new page you’ll be able to read about the background to the plan, keep up to date with the progress of the review and link in with any planned consultation and engagement activities that may be of interest. You can also submit any queries or comments that you may have about the Strategic Plan or the review work. It’s our intention that the webpage will be interactive and we expect it to evolve over time as we review how it’s working and respond to any feedback we get.