Health and Homelessness: Shared Solutions 17 th March 2009 Edinburgh Richard Norris Director, Scottish Health Council

Established in 2005 Chairman (appointed by Minister) and 9 Council Members 69 staff in 15 offices throughout Scotland Local Advisory Council Members in all areas Three functions – Assessment, Development & Feedback “established to provide leadership in securing greater public involvement and to ensure that quality improvement is driven by the needs of patients and service users. The Scottish Health Council will monitor the performance and effectiveness of NHS Boards delivery of its patient focus and public involvement responsibilities and report regularly on the results.” (NHS HDL (2005) 11) Scottish Health Council

Vision of a health service: –where people are respected, treated as individuals and involved in their own care; –where individuals, groups and communities are involved in improving the quality of care, in –influencing priorities and in planning services; and –designed for and involving users. And where ‘listening, understanding and acting on the views of local communities, patients and carers is given the same priority as clinical standards and financial performance’ Patient Focus and Public Involvement

A ‘seldom heard’ group Aims of today: How best can health services engage with people affected by homelessness and provide services designed around their needs? How can we intervene at an early stage to prevent an individual or family becoming homeless?

For example… How do we create mechanisms to ensure that people can have their say in local service change? How do we raise awareness of services available? How do people know that the chiropody clinic has new opening hours or has changed location? How can we make primary care more accessible? How do we make sure that views are sought when a mental health facility is being closed and services provided elsewhere?

Shared solutions The answers are in the room Wide range of representation from across the voluntary and statutory sector Wealth of knowledge about support services, health and social care, housing, advocacy etc By the end of today we want to agree how best to meet the aims of the conference