Aberdeen City Integration Scheme (Health and Social Care)

Overview

Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership (ACHSCP) deliver integrated adult community health and social care services on behalf of Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian.

The services delivered include Social Work, Social Care, Community Nursing, Allied Health Professionals (such as physiotherapists, dieticians, and speech and language therapists), Primary Care Services (for example GPs, Community Pharmacy and Optometry). These services are delegated to ACHSCP from both Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian.

In addition, there are what is called ‘hosting’ arrangements whereby each of the health and social care partnerships in Grampian take responsibility for a Grampian wide service. In Aberdeen City we host Mental Health and Learning Disabilities (MHLD), Sexual Health Services, and Specialist Older Adults and Rehabilitation Services (SOARS).

ACHSCP is governed by an Integration Joint Board (IJB) The IJB for Aberdeen City makes decisions on matters of strategy, policy and the annual budget as well as having oversight of, and obtaining assurance on, the performance of delegated services, including services that it hosts. It directs the work of ACHSCP.

The Aberdeen City Integration Scheme is required under the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act (2014). It must be reviewed every 5 years at least and for Aberdeen City this must be completed by March 2023. Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian must endorse, or agree with the content of the Scheme, and Scottish Ministers must approve it. This means we need to have the revised Scheme developed before the end of the calendar year.

The legislation sets out what the Integration Scheme must contain. The full Integration Scheme is available to view as a separate document. A brief summary of the content of the sections is sections in contained in Appendix A, and Appendix B details the changes made to the existing Integration Scheme. Although 24 changes are listed, most of these are minor clarifications and updating. The most significant additions are: -

• the inclusion of the recently approved Whistleblowing Policy,

• a more robust reflection of the joint Locality Planning Arrangements and involvement of communities,

• inclusion of Mental Health Services, and

• the addition of pharmaceutical services for under 18s (note this was an omission from earlier versions)

The lifespan of the Integration Scheme is technically to March 2028 however it is recognised that the implementation of a National Care Service and the change to Care Boards will likely take place prior to this requiring new arrangements to be put in place.

Why your views matter

We are seeking your views on the revised Integration Scheme in advance of it being submitted for approval.

The full Integration scheme and a summary version are linked at the bottom of this page. You will need to consider these to complete the survey.

This survey will take 10 minutes to complete.

What happens next

The Integration Scheme must be reviewed every 5 years at least and for Aberdeen City this review must be completed by March 2023.  

The Scheme is being presented to the NHS Grampian Board and Aberdeen City Council meetings in December 2022 prior to submission to Scottish Ministers in January 2023.   Below the draft full revised version of the Aberdeen City Integration Scheme along with a summary document that details what the Scheme is and what changes are being proposed to the existing version.  

We welcome your comments on this revised version of the Scheme.