Edinburgh Integration
Joint Board

The impact of covid-19 and related restrictions will likely have a continuing impact directly on health and wellbeing as well as indirectly through the economic situation that may exacerbate existing inequalities. We continue to monitor and prepare for this longer-term impact.

Over 2021/22 we will be refreshing and consulting on our Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2025. This will consider our evolving strategic priorities in light of the impact of covid-19 as well as wider trends our services need to respond to.

We will also draw on the findings of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, released in February 2021, to ensure our strategic plan responds to the opportunities presented by this report. The full extent of changes to adult social care resulting from this report may not be realised for some time but we need to ensure our plans align to the direction endorsed by the Scottish Government.

Our focus on our transformation programme will continue over 2021/22. We will reach significant milestones in a few of our major projects, including:

• Finalise and embed the ‘Edinburgh Pact’ through community mobilisation and other transformation projects.
• Continue our bed-based care project by seeking approval of phase one of the bed-based strategy and commencing work on redesign options for phase 2 work streams.
• Embed the Home First ethos, with a dedicated staff team, into business as usual by March 2022.
• Roll out the Three Conversations approach to all services completing assessments, allowing a reduction in waiting times for assessment, better and more person-centred outcomes for individuals and reduced referrals to paid-for services.
• Develop a market facilitation strategy and plan to ensure there is a sustainable market of providers and services for supported people to choose from.
• Implement new Care at Home contracts by October 2022 following a co-production process focused on moving away from time and task models of care provision to focus on better outcomes for the people we support.

Our transformation programme was funded and resourced on a two-year basis, which is due to end in March 2022. Some projects will be transitioned into our business as usual structures by this time, with the ethos of Home First and Three Conversations embedded into our everyday work. Other projects will require ongoing support for implementation over a longer period – for example, the Bed Base Strategy and Market Shaping – and consideration will be given on how best to resource this within a core strategic programme of work.