Annual Strategic Plan Delivery Plan 2025/26

How we will deliver our Strategic Priorities this year

Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership

IMAGE: A coastal landscape in Orkney at sunset, showing rocky shoreline, waves, open sea and distant headlands. The image provides the document’s cover context for the Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership’s annual strategic delivery plan.

Contents

• Introduction — 3
• Priority: Tackling Inequalities and Disadvantage — 5
  • Outline — 5
  • Strategic Intention — 5
• Priority: Early Intervention and Prevention — 7
  • Outline — 7
  • Strategic Intention — 7
• Priority: Supporting Unpaid Carers — 9
  • Outline — 9
  • Strategic Intention — 9
• Priority: Supporting People to Age Well — 11
  • Outline — 11
  • Strategic Intention — 11
• Priority: Community Led Support — 13
  • Outline — 13
  • Strategic Intention — 13
• Priority: Mental Health and Wellbeing — 15
  • Outline — 15
  • Strategic Intention — 15

Introduction

This Strategic Plan Delivery Plan provides details of how we intend to deliver the Partnership’s six Strategic Priorities, over the coming year. We will review this plan at the end of the year and update our Milestones and Measures.

Our Strategic Priorities have been determined through consultation and engagement with service users and professionals.

It is clear people still feel the Strategic Priorities from our previous plan are still relevant, covering the most pressing issues facing health and social services in the County.

Professional acknowledgment that services must respond to changing public expectations, budgetary challenges, staffing shortages, and changing demographics, have resulted in new ideas and innovations in service delivery, such as the use of digital technology.

The priorities must be considered within the broader context and recognition that helping people to maintain their health and wellbeing, providing access to preventative services, and delivering for everyone, regardless of circumstance, will encompass every aspect of strategic planning and service delivery. We will use shared decision making to place our population at the centre of their care, always listening to what matters to you.

IMAGE: A diagram showing six Strategic Priorities arranged around a central space. “Early Intervention and Prevention” appears in the upper section; “Tackling Inequalities and Disadvantage” appears in the lower section; and four central blocks are labelled “Mental Health”, “Carers”, “Aging Well”, and “Community Led Support”.

Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership’s Strategic Plan, and this Delivery Plan, should be read within the context of public services’ delivery, in Orkney. There are multiple strategic plans, issued by a number of responsible statutory and third sector agencies, all of which retain common themes. Despite attempting to tackle different challenges, all these plans seek to improve the overall health and wellbeing of the people of Orkney and, consequently, are inextricably linked.

Scottish Government, too, has a plan to improve health and wellbeing across Scotland. This plan is summarised in the nine National Health and Wellbeing Outcomes. (You can read more about these outcomes here.) You will find a summary of the Outcomes addressed by each of the Strategic Priorities, below.

Finally, it should be noted that no single Strategic Priority sits in isolation; each has a direct influence and effect on the others. This means co-production, across every aspect of service delivery in the health and social care sector (and in public services delivery, in general) is mandatory if we are to successfully deliver upon our stated Strategic Priorities and, most importantly, improve the health and wellbeing of people in Orkney.

Priority: Tackling Inequalities and Disadvantage

Outline

We are committed to:

• Working to keep children, young people, and vulnerable adults safe.
• Making sure that everybody can access the service or treatment that they might need, when they need it.
• Removing barriers to accessing services.
• Working with partners to address financial hardship.
• Ensuring Orkney is a safe and happy place to live, for everyone.

Strategic Intention

The provision of multi-professional, 21st century health and social care, which is tailored to the needs of our population.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 5: Health and social care services contribute to reducing health inequalities.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26

Priority: Early Intervention and Prevention

Outline

Our strengthened focus on prevention and early intervention will promote good, positive, physical and mental health, and wellbeing, for all people, whatever their age.

Strategic Intention

Prevention and Early Intervention, across the lifespan, is vital to all our priorities. We want to empower people to be more aware of, and responsible for, their health and wellbeing, whatever their age or background. We are committed to improving the overall health and wellbeing of children, young people, and adults, in Orkney. Communities and the local environment play an important role in promoting good health and providing opportunities to be active, to be involved, and to connect with others.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 1: People are able to look after and improve their own health and wellbeing and live in good health for longer.

Outcome 4: Health and social care services are centred on helping to maintain or improve the quality of life of people who use those services.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26

Priority: Supporting Unpaid Carers

Outline

The Scottish Government has observed that the care system could not cope without the enormous contribution from unpaid carers. The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 recognised this contribution, promising to ‘promote, defend, and extend the rights’ of adult and young carers across Scotland. The Act enhances and extends the rights of carers, with carers now entitled to their own support plan.

The role of unpaid carers is also recognised in the Scottish Government’s nine National Health and Wellbeing Outcomes. This recognition is local, too, with support for unpaid carers being one of our strategic priorities.

Strategic Intention

The Carers’ Strategy Group, a group with membership from across the statutory and third sectors, as well as unpaid carer representation, is charged with delivery of the Carers’ Strategy.

The group will make sure that unpaid carers can access the help and support services they need to enable them to continue in their caring role for as long as they wish to.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 1: People are able to look after and improve their own health and wellbeing and live in good health for longer.

Outcome 2: People, including those with disabilities or long-term conditions, or who are frail, are able to live, as far as reasonably practicable, independently and at home or in a homely setting in their community.

Outcome 4: Health and social care services are centred on helping to maintain or improve the quality of life of people who use those services.

Outcome 6: People who provide unpaid care are supported to look after their own health and wellbeing, including to reduce any negative impact of their caring role on their own health and wellbeing.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26

Priority: Supporting People to Age Well

Outline

Older people consistently tell us they would prefer to stay in their own homes, in their own communities, for as long as possible, rather than move into supported accommodation or residential care. Whilst we have invested significantly in improving sheltered and residential care for our most frail and vulnerable older people (such as the new care home in Stromness, and the planned new care facility in Kirkwall), we recognise people want to receive support, wherever possible, at home.

Strategic Intention

If we are to be more successful in meeting peoples’ preferences, we need to ensure we have an adequate workforce, appropriately remunerated and fully trained in the delivery of complex care. We need to ensure all possible use of technology is maximised and we need to ensure all community-based teams are working collaboratively together for the benefit of the people in our care.

We will work together with our partners across the health, care, and third sector to help people access activities and services to meet the needs of vulnerable older people.

We will ensure that people living with frailty are able to access well planned and well-coordinated services which are tailored to their individual needs and support their health, wellbeing, and independence at every stage of their condition.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 1: People are able to look after and improve their own health and wellbeing and live in good health for longer.

Outcome 2: People, including those with disabilities or long-term conditions, or who are frail, can live, as far as reasonably practicable, independently and at home or in a homely setting in their community.

Outcome 9: Resources are used effectively and efficiently in the provision of health and social care services.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26

Priority: Community Led Support

Outline

Community Led Support aims to provide the foundation for a more modern, effective way of delivering health and social care support that strengthens individuals, and community resilience and wellbeing. It is based on joined up working and collaborations across a range of organisations and partners, working collaboratively in the interests of the community, and moves away from professionally led processes and decisions, with the aim of focusing on good, effective conversations with people.

Strategic Intention

Working with communities and partners to collaboratively design services with a focus on prevention, early intervention and on enabling people to be as independent as possible. This will strengthen integrated health and social care provision, improve mental health and wellbeing support, bolster partnership working and drive further development of Community Led Support / care in a co-designed approach.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 7: People who use health and social care services are safe from harm. They do and are supported to continuously improve the information, support, care, and treatment they provide.

Outcome 8: People who work in health and social care services feel engaged with the work they do and are supported to continuously improve the information, support, care, and treatment they provide.

Outcome 9: Resources are used effectively and efficiently in the provision of health and social care services.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26

Priority: Mental Health and Wellbeing

Outline

The Strategic Plan highlights that we think it is important that people who experience mental health problems receive the same level of social and clinical support as those with physical health problems, and that we have made a commitment to improve and develop mental health and wellbeing supports across Orkney, so that people can live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.

Strategic Intention

Our strategic intention is described within the current Mental Health Strategy as “Helping people in Orkney to ensure that preventive measures are deployed at the earliest opportunity and that those with enduring mental health conditions live longer, healthier and more independent lives within their own communities. Getting it right for everyone applies equally to those with mental health conditions as it does those with physical health conditions.” In addition our intention is to bolster the current service and create a sustainable service, recognising the changes in need and demand from our local population.

This Strategic Priority Contributes to:

Outcome 1: People are able to look after and improve their own health and wellbeing and live in good health for longer.

Outcome 3; People who use health and social care services have positive experiences of those services, and have their dignity respected.

Outcome 5: Health and social care services contribute to reducing health inequalities.

Outcome 7: People who use health and social care services are safe from harm. They do, and are, supported to continuously improve the information, support, care, and treatment they provide.

Outcome 9: Resources are used effectively and efficiently in the provision of health and social care services.

Delivery Milestones Year 2025/26