Looking ahead
Our focus over 2024/25 will be on the delivery of the budget savings programme agreed by the EIJB in March 2024 and Inspection Improvement Plan agreed by the EIJB in June 2023. These initiatives will support us to improve services for the people of Edinburgh while also working towards financial sustainability by cutting the structural deficit in a manageable way over the next three years. However, this may also mean that we maintain rather than continue to improve upon our performance against the core indicators, as we balance the financial challenges we face with our performance ambitions.
We will also be consulting on a refreshed EIJB Strategic Plan, which has a focus on four key priorities:
- wellbeing, prevention and early intervention,
- building resilient communities to maximise independence,
- protecting our most vulnerable, and
- valuing our workforce and managing resources.
By evolving our strategic change programme to incorporate these plans, we will work to balance the need for service improvements and financial sustainability alongside continuously promoting positive outcomes for service users. Some of the key strategic change projects we will be progressing in 2024/25 are a redesign of our ‘front door’, i.e. the ways that service users are able to access our services, and continuing our key pathways programmes. We will also be developing a new Digital and Data Strategy and implementing a new case management system that will cover our adult social care work.
We will continue to engage with, and respond to, work undertaken by our partners in the wider health and social care landscape, including proposals for the National Care Service (NCS). We will carefully consider how we can use these developments to enhance person-centred care and support to our staff and service users. Innovation and sustainability will remain central to our thinking and underpin our desire to foster a culture of continuous improvement.