Continuing the Conversation

Effective communication with our staff and other key stakeholders continues to be a priority for Angus HSCP and our activities have continued to reflect our priorities for improvement. We host a range of groups and forums  to deliver consensus on plans  and the vision for the future. Involvement and engagement approaches include:

• Locality Improvement Groups
• Care Home Improvement Groups
• GP clusters
• GP clinical partnership groups
• Providers Forums

Our communication activity included:

• The Angus HSCP website (https://angushscp.scot/) is continually being updated and developed based on various feedback from visitors and service managers. During 2019/20 there were 9,598 unique visitors to the website with 64,000 page views. New areas of webpage development included a dedicated area for Technology Enabled Care and Mental Health and Wellbeing. We have also added the ability for visitors to submit events they’d like to be displayed (subject to review by us); added a Coronavirus section that is updated regularly with information regarding COVID-19.
• During 2019/20 the Angus HSCP Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AHSCP/) gained an additional 750 followers.
• Regular publication of the Partnership newsletter Integration Matters.
• Publication of the four locality improvement plans.
• A poster describing the Angus Care Model was successfully selected and displayed at the NHSScotland event in June 2019.
• A poster demonstrating our journey to develop the Angus Adult Palliative and End of Life Care Plan was presented at the Annual Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care Conference in September 2019.
• We created a poster which highlights the range of telecare equipment available to support people to remain safe in their own homes.
• We continue to publicise the work of the Partnership through regular press releases.
• Adapting a leaflet (first developed from Roxburge House) called “What to expect when someone is dying” for use in our Community Hospitals in Angus. People have told us that they are often unsure about what happens to a person when they are dying and this information compliments the conversation staff have with people about death and dying.

We continue to be committed to engagement with stakeholders in our services.

Specific engagement activities included:

• A Carer Conversation event was held in June 2019 where carers shared what was important to them. Feedback was used to inform the new Angus Carers Strategy. Carers representatives then delivered an awareness-raising presentation to the Angus Integration Joint Board about the contribution made and challenges faced by unpaid carers.
• Members of the public were invited to provide feedback and contributed to the development of the Angus Strategic Commissioning Plan 2019-2022.
• Angus HSCP piloted the Care Experience Improvement Model methodology to better understand the experience of people admitted to Isla and Clova wards in Whitehills Health and Community Care Centre. As a result, a number of improvements have been made to the environment of the ward. This approach will be spread to other areas across Angus.
• The Angus Mental Health and Wellbeing Network continues to ensure service user feedback informs any change within community mental health services. For example, their views have helped shape the Mental Health and Wellbeing Peer Support service now available in every Angus GP Practice.
• Staff, service users and families all contributed to a comprehensive review of overnight support. The review has resulted in the replacement of identified sleepovers/waking nights with alterative ways of providing overnight support, achieving less intrusive, more person centred and more enabling support for the individual.
• The review of Supported Hosing (Older People) concluded in August 2019. Engagement for the review commenced with consultation events and briefings for staff, tenants, families, landlords and other stakeholders. Regular engagement with tenants/families and stakeholders took place throughout the duration of the review to hear what people’s preferences were for supported housing and this information was used to influence future models of care and support provision. The review resulted in agreed support and care models which are now being progressed to implementation.
• iMatter is a team based, employee engagement questionnaire which was introduced by the Scottish Government in January 2015. iMatter helps individuals, teams and the Partnership to understand and improve staff experience at work which is the first step to putting in place measures that will help to maintain and improve it. In turn this benefits individual staff members and the patents/service users that they support and their families. Staff undertook the most recent survey in December 2019. As a result of iMatter, teams have made a number of improvements to their working arrangements. For example: “our team has improved by ensuring better communication with regard to department workload/priorities thus streamlining work and productivity within the department.”
• Staff were invited to provide feedback about Integration Matters, our Partnership newsletter. The majority of responders thought it provided the right amount of information.
• Angus Health and Social Care Partnership leads work with a Home Mobile Health Monitoring (HMHM) initiative, Florence, that has won praise from the Scottish Government. In May 2019 Angus HSCP hosted an engagement event to raise awareness of HMHM initiatives in Tayside.
• At least 90% of those surveyed by Penumbra in a pilot of this service between July and September 2019 found the service completely accessible, helpful, they felt understood, found it beneficial to speak to someone with their own lived experience of mental health and wellbeing, and feel equipped to use the information and tools provided. Comments from the Penumbra survey included:

“I have found it helpful speaking with someone who understands exactly what my thoughts and feelings have been at my lowest point and have been able to guide me from there towards recovery. The advice and help from the workbooks to the action plans for me have been invaluable.”

“.. she was a great listener who made me feel ‘normal’ to feel this way.”

“I felt I was able to express my thoughts and fears, which was a huge relief. I now feel a bit more positive and able to deal with the situation.”

Voluntary Action Angus also undertake a range of engagement with the public that feeds into Angus HSCP improvement work and strategic planning. VAA hosted a number of events over the last year. One of their highlights, held in conjunction with Angus HSCP, was their ‘Be Well in Winter’ event. This event saw 25 Third Sector organisations and community groups come together with other agencies in order to provide a drop in event for community members across Angus. Over 100 visitors attended on the day and VAA were able to to promote how to keep healthy over the winter months. The support ranged from mental health and wellbeing, eating well, housing and energy costs as well as how to access services for elderly people who struggle to get out over winter. The impact and feedback from this event was fantastic and VAA hope to provide similar events once Covid restrictions allow.