Welcome to the latest issue of Partnership Matters.

It was only last month that the World Health Organisation declared the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency, just over three years from when we first went into national lockdown. Although we’ve finally made it to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to the vaccines and our individual and collective public health efforts, I think we still haven’t quite been able to fully process the impact of it – particularly the impact during those first few weeks because we had no point of reference whatsoever. Even for us who have worked in health and social care for a long period of time, we’ve never in our careers or lifetime experienced anything like a global health pandemic, and the disproportionate impact it had on the people who we work with and for.

But as I’ve said a number of times, it was the above and beyond efforts and resilience of our staff and partners during the pandemic that were instrumental in keeping the health and social care needs of our city supported. We still continue to do this within the context of the cost of living crisis and the significant impact it’s currently having on people.

We begin this issue of Partnership Matter with a feature about new artwork celebrating staff and their resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in our Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) care homes for older people. To recognise and celebrate their resilience, we commissioned artwork, inspired by staff and in partnership with the Alliance, to be a reminder of their efforts and dedication. We have created a video that tells more about this, and the remarkable story of how care home staff supported one another, residents and their families. I’d like to encourage everyone to take some time to watch the short video. I think it’s true to say that it reflects our wider health and social care responses to the pandemic in the city, and our enduring resilience.

We continue Partnership Matters with further features on:

• our HSCP staff being recognised and celebrated at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Staff Excellence Awards, which saw our Older People Residential and Day Services and Care Home Liaison Psychology Service announced as our HSCP’s Staff Awards for Excellence Overall Winner. At the event, Liz Thomson from our Complex Needs Service won the Gold award in the Better Workplace category. We also had Silver award winners – Asylum Health Bridging Team in the Global Citizenship category and Peer Naloxone Champions in the Volunteer category. In the Better Health category, NHSGGC’s Urgent and Unscheduled Care services, which includes our HSCP’s hosted Mental Health Assessment Units and Community Assessment Centre, also received a Silver award
• an update on our Integration Joint Board’s (IJB) new Strategic Plan for health and social care in Glasgow City 2023 to 2026, which was recently approved at their meeting on 28 June
• our Complex Needs service and an update on what they’ve achieved since recently celebrating their one-year anniversary and
• work we’ve been doing around loneliness as part of our Socially Connected Strategy.

We also include in this issue web links to more news articles that have been published on our HSCP’s website, as well as links to upcoming meetings and events. You can keep up to date on what’s happening across our HSCP with partners by following us on Twitter and Facebook, too. If you have something you’d like to feature in Partnership Matters, feel free to email us at gchscp_communications@glasgow.gov.uk.

No doubt everybody’s taken advantage of the good weather that we’ve experienced in recent weeks here in the West of Scotland. As we move into summer, I hope that you have an enjoyable break if you have one planned, and if not, have a great summer.

Thanks.

Susanne