Education for an integrated care workforce

Scottish Government’s (2017) National Health and Social Care workforce plan, acknowledge that the planning for the future workforce within NHS Scotland will require a broad range of professionals to support the provision of services.

Delivering integrated care across the globe requires that the workforce are appropriately educated. The University of West of Scotland (UWS) responded to this need by developing undergraduate and post graduate programmes in integrating health and social care which have been successfully running since 2011. These have been developed to address the educational needs of a cross-sectoral health and social care workforce in cultural transformation focusing on educating for enablement and empowerment through cross sector co-production and an asset based approach.

This is achieved through the multi-professional and multi-sectoral nature of shared co-productive learning to Integrated Care. This is
advocated as a way of breaking down professional boundaries and in developing a more cohesive approach to professional practice. This presentation provides the opportunity to share experiences and how an integrated approach to education, learning and networking at home and internationally informs service delivery and experiences.