‘Fully joined-up approach needed’: RCN responds to Audit Scotland’s report on improving community planning

Published: 20 March 2013

Commenting on today’s report by Audit Scotland on improving community planning in Scotland, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland Director Theresa Fyffe said: “We fully agree with Audit Scotland’s timely analysis that Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) are at a crossroads. In today’s economic climate, with a major shift in the age of our population, it is clear that significant changes are needed to how public services are delivered.

“If all our public services are to fully realise their potential and make a real difference locally, then the Scottish Government has to make sure that all its resources and its policies are pulling in the same direction. Yet as this report says, it is not clear how CPPs and the proposed new health and social care partnerships (HSCPs) responsible for integrating care, will work together. We have also raised these concerns. It is in no-one’s interest to create parallel systems, so that CPPs and HSCPs have different priorities, different ways of reporting, different ways of commissioning services and different lines of accountability. We need  a fully joined-up approach between the NHS, local government and their partners and we would therefore urge the Scottish Government to clarify how community planning partnerships and the new health and social care partnerships, with their overlapping remits, will work together effectively for the people of Scotland in the future. ”

ENDS

For further information or to arrange an interview, please call 0131 662 6173 or the out-of-hours press officer on 07962 801005.

Notes to editors

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the world’s largest professional organisation and trade union for nursing staff, with members in the NHS, independent and voluntary sectors. RCN Scotland promotes patient and nursing interests by campaigning on issues that affect our members, shaping national health policies, representing members on practice and employment issues and providing members with learning and development opportunities.  With around 39,000 members in Scotland, we are the voice of nursing.