The Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have published a joint inspection of adult services, focusing on the outcomes and experiences of adults with physical disabilities and complex needs in the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

It has found clear strengths in how integrated health and social care services are positively supporting people’s health and wellbeing outcomes. Inspectors also identified areas which could further improve. 

Inspectors found that most people in South Ayrshire experienced positive outcomes from the delivery of health and care services. Generally, people had a positive experience of health and social care.  

The report noted that services on the whole worked well together.  

There were particular strengths in the approaches to early intervention and prevention. This activity was captured in robust strategic planning that set out to achieve clear and relevant goals.

Inspectors also found that leadership was committed to change and improvement in South Ayrshire.  

The inspection highlighted some priority areas for improvement.

The partnership and the people it supported were emerging from an extremely challenging period as a consequence of the pandemic. Building on learning from the pandemic was recognised as critical in ensuring people felt supported and services continued to be relevant.

The partnership had made progress in areas such as self-directed support and anticipatory care planning. However, it needed to continue building on this.  

Jackie Irvine, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “We found that South Ayrshire was performing well on key outcomes. People experiencing care spoke very positively about the regard they were held in by staff working for the partnership and the third and independent sectors. Most people experiencing care had positive experiences of accessing support and using services. Some people had not experienced positive outcomes in this regard and addressing this was important for the partnership to continue improving.”

Robbie Pearson, Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said: “Leadership of health and social care had significantly evolved since integration legislation was implemented. A number of newer leaders and senior managers were in place and had established their clear vision for services. At the heart of this was a determined focus and commitment to continuous improvement. This recognised that change had been and would continue to be required to address current and future challenges. We had confidence in the approach the leadership team were taking to manage a complex and evolving landscape.”

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Notes to editors

The full report can be read here.