Health and social care integration: making it work for vulnerable children and families
We are in a period of intense reform in public services and traditional, standard structures around children’s services are no longer in place.
The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 set out the legislative duties for delivering improved outcomes for all in health and social care and all children’s services. Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) have been established across Scotland to implement this reform.
All IJBs have strategic leadership responsibility for some children’s services, although the exact nature of this varies from area to area. There are nine integrated partnerships where children’s services are included in the structure; one where children’s services are located with children’s primary health services and education within the council; and 21 where children’s services remain in the local authority.
From 2017-18 Social Work Scotland, in partnership with Children in Scotland and CELCIS, was funded by ihub and the Care Inspectorate to carry out a piece of research looking at children’s services post-integration to identify the critical factors that need to be in place to support vulnerable children.
In this phase we:
- Updated the evidence review from phase one in 2015
- Undertook semi-structured interviews with national and local leaders/managers
- Produced case studies from three areas across Scotland to describe different models of integration for children’s services
- Shared findings with front-line professionals.
The following two reports are available from this phase:
The project builds on previous work with the three core partners in 2014-2015, which explored different models for integration across Scotland and the implications for children’s services.
Click here to read Report One: A Review of Literature
Click here to read Report Two: Study Findings
For further information, contact:pppteam@childreninscotland.org.uk