The planning of health and social care services across East Dunbartonshire is improving but challenges remain, inspectors have said.

A joint inspection which focussed on strategic planning of health and social care services and how effective this is in the partnership was carried out by a team of inspectors from Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate between November 2018 and February 2019.

In a report, published today, inspectors said: “We concluded that there was clear evidence the partnership was progressing integration across health and social care settings and a positive culture of collaborative leadership was developing.

“We were confident that the partnership had the capacity to make further progress. Our confidence in its ability to do so was tempered by the scale of transformation required and the very challenging financial context.”  

The report identifies five key areas for improvement in planning services, measuring performance, working with stakeholders to develop and deliver services and developing sustainable long-term financial plans.

Peter Macleod, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “We are mindful that partnerships across Scotland are working within very challenging circumstances to progress the development and delivery of integrated health and social care services.  

“We anticipate that the East Dunbartonshire partnership can build on progress made to date and take forward improvements in the areas identified in this inspection and move towards the more efficient and effective integration of services. In turn, this should lead to better outcomes for people supported through these services.”  

Robbie Pearson, Chief Executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, said:

“Our report outlines clear evidence that the partnership is progressing towards integration across health and social care settings. We’re confident that the partnership has the capacity to make further progress.

“It’s important that the partnership progresses the areas for improvement in relation to performance, strategic planning and commissioning, and leadership on integration.”

You can download the report here.