Since the last issue of Partnership Matters, we’ve been celebrating here in our Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) with two events that I look forward to taking part in each year.

Towards the end of October, we held our annual Staff Awards for Excellence to recognise and celebrate staff, teams, projects and volunteers who have ‘gone the extra mile’ in their work. The event had been paused for a couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic but we were able to re-start it this year as a virtual event. The awards were hosted by myself and the Chair and Vice Chair of our Integration Joint Board (IJB), Councillor Chris Cunningham and Simon Carr. Along with our Senior Management Team, we announced our category winners and commendations from a strong shortlist of 116 nominations.

As I said at the event, to pick people out is really challenging, because they’re all winners. The breadth of nominations really demonstrated the positive impact that our staff are having on patients, service users and their families on a day-to-day basis, and it’s important for us to take the time to recognise and celebrate their efforts and show our appreciation. Winners will be invited to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Celebrating Success Awards in Spring 2023, at which the overall winner for our HSCP will be announced. I’m already looking forward to our staff awards next year, and we’re planning to resume it as an in-person event.

Also at the end of October, we celebrated National Care Experienced Week by hosting our HSCP’s annual ‘Care Experienced Open Day’ event. The day is an opportunity for people who are care experienced and those who work with and support them, to celebrate their achievements and talents. There’s also partner stalls for support and information on education, accommodation and other creative services. This year’s event was called ‘Carechella’, inspired by one of the world’s largest arts and music festivals ‘Cochella’, and the festival theme was evident on the day with a plethora of talent on display in a bright and colourful atmosphere. What makes the event so empowering is that it’s always led by and for care experienced young people. You can read more about the event, and watch a short video that we put together with highlights.

In this issue of Partnership Matters, we continue to feature work where the health and social care needs of those who we support are at the very centre of what we do, with the aim of helping people to get the right care and support, in the right place and at the right time. Features include:

• the launch of Health and Social Care Connect, making it easier for people to contact us and request a service, access advice or be signposted to other supports
• an update on our HSCP’s Strategic Plan, which will be ready for implementation next March subject to approval by our IJB and
• webpages we’ve created with more information on the new health and social care Parkhead Hub that we’re building with partners in North East Glasgow.

We also include in this issue web links to more news articles that have been published on our HSCP’s website since our last issue, as well as links to upcoming meetings and events.

As we approach the end of the year, I’d like to express my immense thanks and deep gratitude to our HSCP staff for what they do on a daily basis. Whilst over the past year we’ve moved to returning to supporting our patients, service users and their families in the way that we did pre-COVID or in new and different innovative ways, we have continued to work in challenging circumstances. We simply couldn’t have supported our most vulnerable and at-risk citizens and the wider health and social care needs our city, and continue to do so, if it wasn’t for their person-centred professionalism and tremendous resilience. And of course this includes us supporting one another as colleagues. I’d also like to extend my thanks to our partners in the third and independent sectors for their work to support our city’s health and social care response.

With the festive period just about to be in full swing, I’d like to wish each and every one of you an enjoyable and peaceful time, and I hope you get to have a rest at some point over the period or in the new year.

Warmest holiday wishes,

Susanne