We kick off the first of this year’s Partnership Matters Briefings featuring our HSCP’s Maximising Independence Programme. Working collaboratively with partners in the third and independent sectors among others, we’re aiming to deliver the largest change in health and social care in Glasgow in a generation. However, as with all long and worthwhile journeys, we’ll reach our destination by taking a series of small steps in the right direction, and all of us can play a part in transforming Glasgow’s health and social care by doing just that. You can read more in our feature how a series of small but interlinked steps by our HSCP’s Community Rehabilitation Teams, working with colleagues in homecare and the wider community, is helping to maximise independence with the people we support.

In last year’s final issue of Partnership Matters, we celebrated our Complex Needs and Asylum Health Services winning the People’s Choice Award at the Scottish Health Awards in November. We continued some well-deserved wins and recognitions at the Glasgow Times Community Champions Awards in December. Health Improvement’s Quit Your Way staff won the Citywide Uniformed Services Award, and Homelessness Services staff at the Chara Centre were finalists for the North West Area Public Service Award. You can read more about them in their feature.

We’ve also featured the work of HSCP staff who provide Mental Health Inpatient Care support to adults with a range of complex mental health difficulties at Leverndale Hospital. Their therapeutic activity work with patients was recognised as finalists in the Mental Health Category at the Scottish Health Awards last year.

I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating the teams for their fantastic achievements. These are not only big wins for our HSCP but for our city and the important supports that they provide. Job well done to all!

We wrap up our features for this issue by highlighting important work that we’re doing around developing our HSCP’s first strategy for tackling domestic abuse. An engagement process for it began in September last year with sessions throughout October and November, and it has involved staff, service users, people with lived experience and key partners across the Glasgow Domestic Abuse system. Engagement and consultation activities are planned to continue to shape the new strategy, and a first draft of it for public consultation is planned for April. Please take the time to read more about this work.

An update on how we continue to respond to and manage the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our health and social care services is also provided with our briefing, and Frances McMeeking, our Assistant Chief Officer for Operational Care Services, features in our regular Senior Management Team (SMT) video.

As we approach almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, I can’t express enough, on behalf of our HSCP’s Senior Management Team, how thankful and grateful we are for the person-centred professionalism, dedication and resilience of our HSCP staff and partners in third and independent sectors in keeping the health and social care needs of our patients, service users and their families supported. They’ve really dug deep to maintain their resilience during these challenging times, and it’s without question that their support and caring and passionate humanity have kept us going. They make us ever so proud of what we’re doing for health and social care here in Glasgow. Thank you.

Susanne