Service improvement

This guidance supports NHS organisations to increase the number of people with learning disabilities employed in NHS services. The accompanying toolkit aims to raise awareness, provide information on reasonable adjustments, and break down some of the barriers that both employers and potential employees may face. It aims to help create a culture which welcomes people with learning disabilities and promotes equitable access to job opportunities.

Cultural humility is a practice of self-reflection about how our own backgrounds and the backgrounds of others can impact on our relationships. It is relevant to creating an inclusive, equitable and diverse culture in health and social care. This resource has been designed to support development of cultural humility values, attitudes, and behaviours. Included are several videos which explore the experiences of health and social care workers from varied cultural backgrounds working in Scotland.

This report sets out the significant themes found in Adult Support and Protection learning reviews / significant case reviews between October 2022 and November 2023. It includes information regarding notification of learning reviews, reviews the information contained in learning reviews, assesses the impact on practice, and sets out next steps / future recommendations.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 imposed a duty on local authorities and health boards to collaborate to ensure the availability of independent advocacy services in their area. The Act gave everyone with mental illness, learning disability, dementia and related conditions the right to access independent advocacy support.

This is an ASPire webinar from November 2024. Its theme is self-evaluation and it has sessions from Ann-Marie Bruce (Chair of the national sub-group on self-evaluation), the Care Inspectorate (on the Quality Improvement Framework for Adult Support and Protection), Ronan Burke (on self-evaluation and hoarding), East Ayrshire Advocacy (on the ASP Lived Experience project) and Kenny O'Brien (on the NHS Public Protection Accountability and Assurance Framework).

The quality improvement framework (QIF) is a tool to support Adult Support and Protection partnerships. It helps partnerships to carry out multi-agency self-evaluations of their Adult Support and Protection arrangements, critical in order to drive continuous improvement. The Care Inspectorate can also use the QIF to underpin future joint inspections of adult support and protection.

The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007: Code of Practice indicates that an inquiry can be undertaken by a non-Council Officer, unless there is a need to use investigative powers. It also stipulates that ‘Good practice would ensure that a Council Officer is involved in overseeing or supervising all activity relating to the Act’. This guidance helps support that best practice in oversight and supervisory activity.

This is an ASPire webinar from June 2024. It is a short, general introduction to Adult Support and Protection. It includes a clear description of what ASP is, types of harm, what to do if you have a concern, and examples to support learning.

Joint inspection reports provide independent scrutiny and assurance of how partnerships ensure that adults at risk of harm are kept safe, protected, and supported. This work builds on the joint inspections undertaken in 2017-18 (and which can be found in this review from 2018).

The Care Inspectorate look at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards. They provide an overall evaluation for each of the key questions inspected , using the six-point scale from unsatisfactory (1) to excellent (6). This resource helps everyone understand what the evaluation scale means.