Fly

It's time to spread your wings!

In this section we'll be thinking about the future of care and support for older people in Scotland, and exploring what might need to happen to make sure we get there.

Background

In 2014, we asked key partners across care and support in Scotland to think about the future of care for older people. We wanted to build a vision for the future for policy, attitude and practice. Fit for the Future wants to build a culture where tomorrow matters just as much as today, and where we actively imagine and shape the future together.

We hope that you use this resource to prompt discussion and debate and to begin to think about making your own vision for the future a reality. While these responses may not represent a radical view of the future, they do reflect the mood of the moment for partners in care across Scotland. For something a little more radical you may want to look at Imagining the Future.

The failure to plan in the past 20 years has led to the position that Scotland's social care services find themselves in today

The failure to plan in the past 20 years has led to the position that Scotland's social care services find themselves in today. Therefore, the need to strategically look at the presenting needs/ageing projections and community commitments engaging with all relevant stakeholders is business critical.

Stuart Fordyce, Team Manager, Dundee City Council, Angus

Within a mixed economy of care, planning also needs to be about Market Facilitation, providing the basis for investment, service development and sustainability

Getting planning right is the key to improved service delivery, but it has to be about more than numbers, be qualitative as well as quantitative. Planning needs to embody our commitment to personalised outcome-focussed care, and a genuine partnership between commissioners, providers, service users and carers, as well as the wider community.

Within a mixed economy of care, planning also needs to be about Market Facilitation, providing the basis for investment, service development and sustainability.

Ranald Mair, CEO, Scottish Care

Full of people who genuinely care and always go that extra mile

I would like the future of care to be as it was in the past when family and neighbours chipped in. Full of people who genuinely care and always go that extra mile. I would like care to be more focused on the individual and not on the time or money being spent on them. I would like the care physically provided to be treated as importantly as it should be.

Anne, Registered Manager and Care Worker, Advanced Care, Falkirk

Care and support requires to move away from service driven and generic services which are restricted and consumed by regulation

Care and support requires to move away from service driven and generic services which are restricted and consumed by regulation to services which are responsive and flexible promoting autonomy and better outcomes for individuals. This needs to be based on a range of models which are driven and flexible to achieve the desired outcomes for individuals rather than outcomes for the service, collective groups of service users and the regulatory bodies.

Jillian Low, Team Manager, Dundee City Council, Dundee

Need to do away with the present silos and the tribal nature of the health and social care sector

Empowerment through information, openness, transparency and education... Need to do away with the present silos and the tribal nature of the health and social care sector. True integration of services and respect for each other is required. Building blocks of knowledge and education will help this rather than having Nurses, OTs, Support Workers etc. Have one title Health and Support Worker with the following modules of learning which may involve OT Module, Nursing Module, Physio module... Have a generic Health and Social Care worker, grade a, b, c etc with modules of learning who have the ability to meet the holistic outcomes for the individual with whom they work. Some of them may wish later on to specialise dependent upon the clients with whom they work. Let's lose the professional tunnel vision that prevents workers from meeting clients outcomes.

Managing Director at a Care at Home company, Perthshire

The perception that caring for older people is too costly must not be allowed to invade our society

The perception that caring for older people is too costly must not be allowed to invade our society as with it comes the unvoiced agreement that poorer standards of care are acceptable in the name of cost cutting. Therefore an increasing older population is a success story, particularly in term of life expectancy and older people should be welcomed into different areas of society using their strengths where possible and protecting those who are more vulnerable... Staff should recognise the impact of normal ageing on ill health and vice versa while demonstrating positive attitudes towards older people irrespective of their health, social and psychological/mental health needs... Generic workers from a generic pot of money may be the way forward in  meeting  robust care needs.

Lindsay Dingwall, Clinical Academic Nurse Consultant for Older People, Tayside

Commissioning is based on outcomes which are supported by valid and reliable tools/methodologies

Commissioning is based on outcomes which are supported by valid and reliable tools/methodologies to measure when outcomes are achieved or progress towards outcomes (or intermediate outcomes) can be demonstrated.

Dr. Sue Newberry, Scottish Care Associate Working on the Putting You First Programme, Dumfries and Galloway

Widely understood limits on the responsibility of the state and the individual

The uncompromising baby-boomer generation will drive standards up and demand more respect, with businesses and governments adapting to cater for the needs of this increasingly prevalent group.Care and support planning will involve multi-disciplinary teams of appropriately trained professionals who will use medical and social models of health to their best effect to promote health and independence for every older person. It will be person-centred, but there will be much more focus than at present on individuals taking responsibility for their own welfare, with widely understood limits on the responsibility of the state and the individual.

Consultant Geriatrician, Aberdeen

Staff should feel valued and trusted in their role

I would like to see all frontline staff qualified to registration requirements and each to have a set of core values regardless of the organisation  with whom they work.. I would insist on all companies having to adopt   the ethos of effective leadership and have learnt to take risks and  give autonomy to staff and empower them to progress. Staff should feel valued and trusted in their role and be able to assist in the care and support they provide to their customers in an enabling manner and not just be task orientated...I also want integration to be something much more than collaboration.

Tracey Viljoen, Operations Manager, Bluebird Care

There are as many older entrepreneurs and older apprentices as there are those happy in retirement ... we no longer limit or scapegoat on the grounds of age

A future where when we think about older people we don’t think first of all about care and support but about contribution and success. Where There are as many older entrepreneurs and older apprentices as there are those happy in retirement; where language has changed so that we no longer limit or scapegoat on the grounds of age; where we stop talking about old age and start talking about citizens regardless of age.

A Scotland where the age you are doesn’t dictate your opportunities or limit your prospects;where older people are treated as equal citizens rather than objects of fake respect or false niceness;  where we recognise the variety age presents and start to treat people as individuals; where  older people are no longer treated as having nothing to contribute but their past; where tomorrow matters just as much as today; where the barriers of age are overcome by shared concern, joint action and mutual respect .

Donald Macaskill, Freelance Social Care Consultant, Across Scotland

I would like for people to be able to be at the best potential and have everything they need as soon as they need it

I would like the care of the future to be full of organisation. Just as the emergency services rush people to hospital, I would like to see this happen within the social work environment, for example, as soon as an individual is in need of aids and equipment, it is of the utmost importance that they receive this. I would like for people to be able to be at the best potential and have everything they need as soon as they need it.

Bev, Care Worker, Advanced Care, Falkirk