Integrating health and social care in East Lothian

Commissioning Strategy 

East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership (ELHSCP) is responsible for the planning and delivery of all health and social care services for adults in East Lothian.  The Integration Joint Board (IJB) Strategic Plan and ELHSCP Commissioning Strategy outline how we aim to work with providers and potential providers of adult social care in order to:

• develop services that are sustainable and proportionate to need
• deliver new models of community provision, working collaboratively with communities
• focus on prevention and early intervention 
• enable people to have more choice and control and provide care closer to home
• further develop / embed integrated approaches and services
• keep people safe from harm 
• address health inequalities.

Strategic Commissioning is a term which sounds complicated but put simply is the assessment and forecast of current and future needs and the linking of investment to services to meet these needs.

There are different ways to approach commissioning, but our principles are in line with the Independent Review of Adult Social Care where they are collaborative in their approach. Actively engaging with our current providers, potential providers and community representatives in the assessment of needs and identification of gaps in service provision. We will look at innovative solutions through options appraisal, evidence based interventions and support collaboration and partnership working between independent, voluntary and third sector providers and community groups to support service redesign.

We will refer to the Fairer Scotland Duty and evidential data alongside undertaking our own Integrated Impact Assessment in order to ensure our Commissioning Strategy is inclusive to all equality groups and to those with protected characteristics.  Additionally, we will work with providers to demonstrate the benefits they deliver for individuals and evidence the wider social impact they have in communities. We will continue to work with our providers to support evidence gathering of national, local and individual outcomes and all of our commissioned and internal services will work towards our commissioning intentions.

Commission intentions and key market messages

• We will work with communities, providers, advocacy bodies, carers, supported people and staff when it comes to commissioning, designing and developing services.
• We will refocus our commissioning on preventative and early intervention approaches that are outcome / recovery focussed and promote independence, participation and self-management.
• We will actively develop, support and promote community based service provision.
• We will endeavour to commission services which will provide support within an individual’s own home, local community or in a homely setting.
• We will promote an outcome focussed approach to health and social care commissioning and attempt to move away from high scale and low cost delivery models which are primarily driven by profit margins.
• The Health and Social Care Partnership will promote collaboration and innovation when it comes to procurement.
• We are committed to ethical commissioning in terms of decisions that take into account factors beyond price, including fair work, terms and conditions, career pathways, trade union recognition and sustainability of services and the environment.
• Seek to address health inequalities and promote equity of access to services regardless of geography or population.
• Our commissioning strategy will support a healthy market across the board, which promotes improved outcomes and choice for supported people and carers.
• We will ensure that we remain compliant with all relevant legislation and national policy.

Implementation of the Commissioning Strategy will be primarily via the work of the Integration Joint Board Commissioning Board and Health and Social Care Partnership officers.

View the full Commissioning Strategy 2022-2025 document here.