The Scottish Government committed to supporting closer and better joint working between Scottish local authorities and NHS health boards. The focus is to achieve better outcomes through improved service delivery. Partnership working has come a long way over the last decade and particularly over the last couple of years. There is now a consensus that effective partnership working is essential in order to design, develop and deliver personal services for those requiring support and assistance to optimise their independence and happiness.
The Joint Improvement Team (JIT) works directly with health and social care partnerships to provide additional support and capacity and to help address the issues and challenges that partnerships face.
Practical support is provided to partnerships through:
- Intensive support programmes in which direct, hands-on support is provided over an extended period of up to two years. These are voluntary, collaborative programmes with partnerships that focus on specific issues, such as delayed discharge, service redesign, or governance and management.
- Service development and improvement work in key action areas that involves working closely with a small number of partnerships to produce outcomes that enable wider application and use. Current areas of work include:
Adult Protection shared learning initiative
Joint Commissioning
Governance and Management
Housing with care
Integrated Transport
Intermediate Care
Learning Disability evidence-based practice
Managed Care Networks
Performance Improvement
Telecare
User and Carer Involvement
For more information on JIT's current programmes that focus on better partnership joint working visit www.jitscotland.org.uk