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Introduction by the Chief Nursing Officer and the Chief Health Professions Officer
Paul Martin
Chief Nursing Officer 
Jacqui Lunday
Chief Health Professions OfficerThe new plan for the NHS, Delivering for Health ( SEHD, 2005a), is a major policy statement setting out the structures for delivery of NHS services in Scotland for the next 10-15 years.
With its express emphasis on managing long-term conditions, caring for older people, encouraging self care and delivering services in people's communities, it offers nurses, midwives and allied health professionals ( NMAHPs) an unprecedented opportunity to increase their capacity to meet the needs of the people of Scotland.
It is vital that NMAHPs make the most of the opportunities the new policy gives them. To ensure this happens, we must be clear that our direction of travel matches exactly that set out in Delivering for Health.
Delivering Care, Enabling Health builds on the vision described in Caring for Scotland ( SEHD, 2001a), the strategy for nursing and midwifery published in 2001, and Building on Success ( SEHD, 2002), the strategy for AHPs, to set out new actions that will drive the delivery of high-quality, patient-centred services to the people of Scotland and support the policy agenda for the NHS.
The process of developing the document gave us clear messages about how NMAHPs are perceived, and how we must change to better meet the needs of individuals, families and communities.
We have received strong confirmation that the people of Scotland value NMAHPs. The core principles of our professions - caring about people, enabling their self-care skills and protecting their safety and rights - are prized highly by the people who use our services, and must continue to underpin our practice.
But we have to learn that rather than doing things to people, we must work with individuals, families and communities, using the principles of care negotiation to enable them to feel empowered to take control over their own care and their own lives.
NMAHPs' core values and principles are still valid, and are still valued. We make a significant contribution to health services and are key elements in determining the quality of patients' experiences. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that in many ways, NMAHPs are champions of the patient's experience, acting as advocates for patients first, and our professions second. This is what patients expect of us, and it is what we must commit to delivering.
This takes us to what might at first glance be considered a contradictory position for NMAHPs, in that we will be practising from a platform of 'modern traditionalism'. It is 'modern' in that NMAHPs are preparing themselves for the challenges they face now and in the future, and it is 'traditional' because in doing so, we must never lose sight of the principles and values that have served the people of Scotland so well for generations.
The position we set out in Delivering Care, Enabling Health is therefore about taking traditional values forward and applying them in a modern context.
The document is presented in three distinct sections:
- Culture and context - setting Delivering for Health as the new policy for health care in Scotland and defining the underlining principles of NMAHP practice
- Capability - describing the NMAHP contribution to meeting the needs of Scotland's population
- Capacity - considering the extent and competency requirements of the NMAHP workforce necessary to meet the challenges of the future.
It identifies a series of key messages that are crucial to taking the NMAHP contribution forward. These key messages set the scene for the action plan, signposting areas in which NMAHP action is essential.
We adopted an inclusive methodology and followed a consultative process. National workshops were held to analyse, debate and decide the key actions needed to meet the people's agenda and take Delivering for Health forward from a NMAHP perspective. The CNO's Policy Forum, consisting of NMAHPs and policy makers, also debated the issues and influenced the subsequent process and decisions taken. The Policy Forum provides a good example of how NMAHPs can come together in common purpose and create positive responses to meeting patients' needs.
The challenge we faced in producing this document was to ensure we kept the needs and wishes of patients at the forefront, didn't exclude any members of the NMAHP 'family', and didn't undermine in any way the core principles of professional practice which are so valued by the people of Scotland. Most important, it was vital that we didn't lose sight of the reason NMAHPs are here - to care for, enable, support and comfort the people who use our services.
What we found was a perfect fit between people's expectations of NMAHP services in particular and health services in general, the policy agenda set by Delivering for Health, and the aspirations of individual NMAHPs to work as part of multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams delivering services that really make a difference.
Great things are happening in our health services, things that are often ignored. Many of them are driven by dedicated NMAHPs who are reaching beyond the bounds of the ordinary to deliver the exceptional. Delivering Care, Enabling Health sets out the practice priorities, the education and training requirements, the research and development imperatives and the leadership and technological challenges that sit before us. It is now up to each and every one of us - leaders, managers, practitioners, educators and researchers - to engage with the ideas it sets out and play our part in creating the transformational change in health care that will meet the needs of Scotland's population now and in the future.
Paul Martin
Chief Nursing Officer | Jacqui Lunday
Chief Health Professions Officer |
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