IFIC Scotland
I am currently studying for a Master’s degree in Social Education, but this path began long before my formal studies. Growing up, my family moved often, and I lived in many different parts of Japan. Each move meant leaving something behind and starting again. Over time, I learned how fragile and precious everyday connections can…
The Digital Care Collaborative Scotland (DCCS) – launched in December 2025 and hosted by the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) – has been established to accelerate digital innovation across Scotland’s social care, social work and housing sectors. Delivered in partnership with national organisations, the DCCS provides the strategic coordination, alignment and knowledge exchange…
As the summer holidays draw to a close, I find myself thinking back to the start of the break when the kids came home with artwork and completed jotters from their year. It was a moment of reflection in which they are proud to show off their work capturing notable events from the school year…
I run Autistic Knowledge Development (AKD), an autism think tank led by professionals who are also autistic and multiply neurodivergent. I am one of those professionals. As a team we say, “we’re autistic at the weekends too!”. This gives a level of insight into what it is to live as neurodivergent people that you cannot…
The International Centre for Integrated Care, a strategic partnership between the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), the University of the West of Scotland and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland, is the home of IFIC in Scotland. This roundtable continued our cross sector dialogue on hot topics in integrated care. It featured outputs…
Everyone deserves a safe and affordable home – Scotland must act now to make housing a human right for all. “The right to housing should be seen as the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity.” United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The right to adequate housing was first…
IFIC Scotland’s country wide network operates to: Connect, Empower, Inform, Inspire and Enable our reference network partners in Scotland through collaboration with IFICs global community. This year we welcomed new academic partners from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling as well as the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care. As we…
The start of a new year often provides some quiet time for space and reflection. It’s an opportunity to think about change and how we want to imagine and create a new future for ourselves. However, we find that new year’s resolutions whilst made with good intentions often prove challenging to sustain. Change itself can…
I arrived home exhausted and exhilarated. NACIC24 did not disappoint from my perspective as a person with lived and living experience.Many congratulations to our IFIC Canada colleagues for hosting an inspiring conference in Calgary last month.
The Community Hospitals Association (CHA) is a membership organisation that supports those involved in community hospitals through networking, sharing quality improvements, and contributing to evidence through research. It is wonderful to celebrate the person-centred and integrated care that is offered in our 500 Community Hospitals across the UK. The CHA is pleased to promote these…
The Integration Support team at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) are delighted to announce the launch of the ‘What is health and social care integration?’ video. Play Video The video, which is aimed at a general audience, uses footage representative of the whole of Scotland, and has been designed to highlight…
IFICs Ageing & Frailty SIG was delighted to collaborate in an excellent interactive session organised with Albert Alonso and the Laurel consortium – a new EU HORIZON-funded project that aims to create actionable policies and training tools to support high-quality integrated long-term care across Europe. Sofia Santos Nunes, Age Platform Europe (AGE), highlighted their Rethinking…
IFIC Scotland supporting multiple Special Interest Groups at ICIC24 IFIC Scotland’s Marie Curran and I were delighted to organise four joint workshops with IFICs SIGs on ageing & frailty, intermediate care and polypharmacy and adherence. The first was an excellent interactive session organised with Albert Alonso and the Laurel consortium – a new EU HORIZON-funded…
IFIC Scotland was delighted that Prof Anne Hendry, IFIC Senior Associate & Director of IFICs country hub in Scotland, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from IFICs Chair Prof Aine Carroll at ICIC24 in Belfast. This award reflects Anne’s longstanding commitment and dedication to IFICs purpose and impact. Congratulations to IFIC for hosting a superb conference.…
Lived Experience Knowledge Hub launched The ALLIANCE has just launched the Knowledge Hub – a new library of resources and guides to support organisations in delivering more meaningful engagement with lived experience. We want to ensure that people’s expertise and knowledge through their lived experience is valued, and that their voices are at the centre…
When people think about health and social care services and policymaking in Scotland, it’s often the role played by government, the NHS and integration authorities that comes to mind. However, this overlooks the vital function played on a daily basis by thousands of third sector organisations up and down the country. The ALLIANCE’s campaigning and…
Back in 2017 I was invited to speak at a conference to share my thoughts about engaging the whole health and social care workforce with the principles underpinning Realistic Medicine, and how we create conditions for innovation across the social care sector. The presentation focused on my experiences of working with social care organisations across…
Since 1971, Bield Housing & Care have been developing housing and services to enable Scotland’s older people to live the life they want. Our brand promise, ‘Free to Be’, sums up our firm belief that older people should have the freedom to make their own choices and live as independently as possible. This is a…
Scotland’s health and care system is increasingly under strain in the face of multiple crises, in particular climate change, the cost of living, the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and persistent health inequalities. Now is the time to look at how we do things differently. This means not just skirting round the edges but overhauling the…
Populations are ageing and many people over the age of 50 years live with multiple long-term conditions and as a result take multiple medications (otherwise known as polypharmacy). Medication is the single most common healthcare intervention and generates the third highest cost of health expenditure. Studies suggest up to 17% of all unplanned hospital admissions…
Last year the Scottish Parliament debated a framework Bill to establish a National Care Service (NCS). From the outset I’ve suggested we should be more ambitious than creating a new care service. In the face of increasing fiscal challenges our public sector reform must aspire to a system wide approach to community wellbeing, care and…
In early November 2023, the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) attended the Community Partnership Conference in Inverness, which brought together members of the third sector, health and social care professionals, and council leaders in Highland to encourage collaborative working, share ideas and concerns, and build strong and trusting relationships. As an event…
In 2023, IFIC Scotland welcomed Bield Housing, Carers Scotland, National Services Scotland and Scottish Care’s Partners for Integration team to our expanded reference network of local and national partners. We also had a fruitful meeting with the Director from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health about our shared aim to develop courageous and compassionate leaders…
Scotland continues to take a significant step forward for human rights in Scotland, as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Bill is reconsidered by the Scottish Parliament. The Bill will incorporate children’s human rights into Scots law and will make rights real for every child. This has been a long…
We are pleased to share our third report on Compassionate Inverclyde, a multi-award-winning social movement established as the first Compassionate Community in Scotland
We are pleased to share our third report on Compassionate Inverclyde, a multi-award-winning social movement established as the first Compassionate Community in Scotland
As an academic who thinks that research can have a positive impact I am always seeking the core challenges worthy of research, and the money to do that research properly. At a recent conference on the future of Social Care in Scotland I had cause to reflect on this. The new minister for Social Care,…
As we reflect on 2022 our highlight was undoubtedly reconnecting with IFICs global community at ICIC22. Marie Curran supported IFICs communications team by recording voices of lived experience from across the globe to ground the opening plenary. Vicki Cloney and Ann Wardlaw were runners up in the Patient and Caregiver award for their paper about…
The ALLIANCE hosts a national self management awareness raising campaign each year. This year, it took the form of Self Management Month , running throughout September and focusing on Celebrating Change as its central theme. Throughout the month, we hosted a variety of events, each offering insight to the diverse approaches to self management being…
A New Year is a time for reflecting on achievements, identifying new goals and making resolutions for the year ahead. This year, our resolutions are all about the 3 Rs: Recovering health, mental wellbeing, social and economic activities for people and communities; Remobilisation of our health and social care workforce to tackle the pandemic backlog;…
After eighteen months of restrictions and working from home with the daily commute from bedroom to workstation feeling the norm it was time to surface and try something new. For this I joined the Rock Choir and turned up to taster session not really knowing what to expect – despite having the song sheets…
IFIC has really embraced person-centred care, and I believe this is the first conference I have been to that has such a high proportion of patients and caregivers. 300 of the 1000 attendees were patients or caregivers, which is fantastic. Congratulations to IFIC for making it possible for patients and caregivers to play such a…
Earlier this year, we published our first blog “Reflections in a Time of Crisis: What it Takes to Manage and Lead Integrated Systems of Care”. In our second blog, we expand on the leadership lessons we are learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider how leadership and management are changing to shape the future of integrated care and, ultimately, population health.
Community Hospitals (CH) made important contributions during the Covid-19 response, demonstrating flexibility, resilience and innovation. CH are local hospitals, often rural, with around 500 throughout the UK. The Community Hospitals Association (CHA) wanted to share this learning and was successful in accessing funding for this project. The project aims to describe, support and promote innovation…
As I reflect on my tenure as chair of the Chief Officer Group, Health and Social Care Scotland (HSCS), I’m reminded of the prophetic final words in my previous Chair’s Report, ‘2020 will be perhaps the most challenging year in our integrated landscape. Marshaled well, it will capture the best of us and help create…
The average person aged over 70-years lives with at least three long term conditions and is likely to take multiple medications. Our outlook on life can change as we get older. Older people often express what matters most to them in terms of relationships and autonomy. How might what’s important to them impact on the…
IFIC Scotland’s end of year blog mentioned our ‘Frailty Matters’ project, funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. I am pleased to share some more detail about this innovative collaboration between the ALLIANCE, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), IFIC Scotland and the Queens Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS). Frailty…
On the 12th November ten students from the MSc Leading People-centred Integrated Care at the University of the West of Scotland joined me in a conversation with IFIC Scotland’s Reference Network. The virtual session was organised to allow the students to share their experiences of participating in the Masters programme, now in its 3rd year.…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….. that pretty much sums up 2020. The dreadful global impact of COVID-19 disrupted our workplan but IFIC Scotland still managed to achieve some key milestones. In March we successfully concluded our Transforming Together project with colleagues from São Paulo State Secretary of Health…
“Congratulations to IFIC Scoland partners in the Scholl Academic Centre for launching the final report of a comprehensive Needs Assessment for the Isle of Man Plan for Integrated Palliative and end of life care” On Monday 23rd November 2020 Hospice Isle of Man was delighted that Minister for Health and Social Care, David Ashford…