Equally Well Test Sites
A key part of implementing the health inequalities Task Force report Equally Well ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/06/25104032/0) is to set up local test sites. Test sites will lead the way in delivering the Task Force's recommendations.
Each test site is a collaboration between local public services, aimed ultimately at reducing inequalities in the health and wellbeing of people who need most or all of those services. Test site applicants selected their own focus from the Task Force's priorities e.g. preventing violence among young people, promoting people's chances of sustained employment. Their proposals aimed to improve client pathways or routes into, through, between and out of a range of local public services, particularly for clients who are most at risk of poor health and wellbeing.
Test Site applicants were asked to demonstrate that their proposal:
- Had senior local leadership and support from champions in each of the key agencies involved;
- Reflected local needs and priorities, as well as the Task Force's approach;
- Was based on evidence and open to fresh ideas from elsewhere
- Planned an improvement to services on what clients need and frontline staff can, and want to, deliver;
- Focused on outcomes relevant to health inequalities, in line with the Task Force's recommendations;
- Managed sustainable redesign of services within existing local budgets;
- Would feed into the Task Force's review of progress in 2010.