The most senior civil servant in Scotland visited health and care leaders and staff in Lanarkshire on Friday.
John-Paul Marks, Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Government, witnessed how a combination of increasingly sophisticated care and expertise is being delivered — compassionately — in the heart of communities. A focal point for the afternoon was discussions on how the wider partnership is committed to a Home First Approach, ensuring that people can be cared for at home (or as close to home as possible), preventing avoidable admissions to hospital and, where hospital admission is necessary, supporting timely discharge.
The Permanent Secretary was joined by Lanarkshire leadership, including Professor Jann Gardner – Chief Executive of NHS Lanarkshire, Professors Soumen Sengupta and Ross McGuffie, Chief Officers of the respective South and North Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnerships and Paul Manning – Chief Executive of South Lanarkshire Council.
The Permanent Secretary was also given a tour of Blantyre LIFE, a ground-breaking care development. He was shown how South Lanarkshire University Health and Social Care Partnership is providing tomorrow’s world support – today.
A joint statement on behalf of all leaders praised the innovation and approach to ensuring exemplary care, often at the most vulnerable point in people’s lives.
“Blantyre Life and the work undertaken by our health and social care workers across Lanarkshire shows the impact that collaboration and innovation can make in delivering positive outcomes for local people.
“Today we saw how technology is being used to make day-to-day living easier and safer. This included how service-users have the opportunity to learn how to live independently as possible in a tech-enabled home, for example.
“That commitment to innovation amplifies the existing human expertise and compassion, developed over many years, which underpins all the care being delivered across communities.”
Case study
The delegation met Ann Burns who says she has been “brought into the light” after moving into the technology-enabled community at the Blantyre LIFE care campus last year.
The former foster carer and psychiatric nurse says her life was taken to the darkest of places over the last decade following shattering personal adversity. This included two strokes, two heart attacks and the death of her husband, Billy, last October.
You can read our original story on Ann, and her experience at Blantyre LIFE, here: https://www.slhscp.org.uk/news/article/255/from_darkness_to_light
You can watch our short film providing a unique glimpse into what Blantyre LIFE is and why it has been created by clicking on this link: https://vimeo.com/836469173
As the most senior civil servant in Scotland and head of the civil service supporting the Scottish Government, the Permanent Secretary is the principal policy adviser to the First Minister and Secretary to the Scottish Cabinet.
