Healthcare Improvement Scotland

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Healthcare Improvement Scotland

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The purpose of Healthcare Improvement Scotland is to enable the people of Scotland to experience the best quality of health and social care.

We believe that every person in Scotland should receive the best care possible every time We have five key priorities. These are areas where we believe we can make the most impact and where we focus our efforts and resources.

1. Enabling people to make informed decisions about their care and treatment.
2. Helping health and social care organisations to redesign and continuously improve services.
3. Provide evidence and share knowledge that enables people to get the best out of the services they use and helps services improve.
4. Provide quality assurance that gives people confidence in the services and supports providers to improve.
5. Making the best use of resources, we aim to ensure every pound invested in our work adds value to the care people receive.

23/10/2026

What are community-led approaches?

Community-led approaches put people, relationships and local strengths at the centre of health and social care.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland has developed these resources to help people explore how community-led approaches can support prevention, collaborative working and make better use of local strengths and resources.

They can help us make support easier to access, build community connections and move towards more relational, people-led ways of working.

This week’s resource is an introduction to community-led approaches including key enablers: What are community-led approaches?

Link in comments.

21/10/2026

You're invited to observe our Board meeting

Would you like to see how our Board makes decisions that shape our work? If so, come along to our next Board meeting.

🗓 Wednesday 2 December 2026
🕥 11:00am
📍 Glasgow or online via MS Teams

Meeting papers will be available on our website in advance.

If you’d like to observe the meeting and gain insight into our Board’s discussions and decision making, email [email protected] to register your interest.

We look forward to welcoming you.

16/10/2026

We are hosting a special webinar to mark Black History Month.

The webinar title is ‘Building ethnic equity and trust in research and guidance: debiasing health evidence,’ and will take place on Thursday 22 October, from 10-11am.

This session brings together internationally renowned experts to explore how bias can influence the appraisal and reporting of health evidence, and what we can do to build greater ethnic equity and trust in research and guidance.

Attendees will hear from Ramona Naicker, Scholarly Services Librarian at Deakin University, Australia, on debiasing critical appraisal. She will be followed by Professor Shaun Treweek and Dr Azar Alexander-Sefre from the University of Aberdeen on debiasing evidence reporting using the PRO EDI tool.

The webinar will conclude with an interactive question and answer session.

Link to register in comments.

14/10/2026

Three-quarters of Scots back the opt-out system for organ and tissue donation in Scotland.

The statistics were revealed in our 18th Citizens' Panel.

Link in comments.

13/10/2026

📅 Have you signed up for our Annual Review yet?

There's still time to register. Sign up by 16 October to join us in person or online via MS Teams.

You'll hear from our Chief Executive and Chair about our achievements over the past year and our plans for the future. You'll also have the opportunity to submit your own questions about our work.

👉 Find out more and register via the link in comments

08/10/2026

We've published our latest inspection reports for Gilbert Bain Hospital, NHS Shetland.

Links are in the comments to read the reports.

07/10/2026

We're proud to congratulate Roberta James and Duncan Service from our Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), who have become Fellows of the Guidelines International Network (GIN).

The Fellowship recognises individuals whose dedication and expertise have helped shape and strengthen the international guideline community.

Congratulations to them both on this well-deserved achievement.

29/09/2026

We are revising our food, fluid and nutritional care standards to ensure they continue to reflect current evidence, policy priorities and expectations for high-quality care.

Our draft scope has now been published for consultation, and we’d like to hear your views.

The link to read our draft scope and take part in the consultation survey is in the comments.

British Dietetic Association Age UK Age Scotland Parkinson's UK Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland Scottish Care Food Train Scotland Compass Group UK & Ireland

28/09/2026

The Medical Director at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) approached our Engagement Practice Responsive Support service to help strengthen their approach to public engagement.

Working with colleagues across SNBTS and Public Services Delivery Scotland, our Engagement Advisors tailored support sessions, including workshops on the Quality Framework for Community Engagement and Participation and a ‘show and tell’ session on Public Partners and People's Experience Volunteers. The sessions helped participants assess their approach to engagement, identify improvements and explore what good practice could look like in their organisation.

Through facilitated discussions and ongoing support, SNBTS completed Domain 1 of the Quality Framework and developed an improvement plan to support future engagement activity.

The work increased awareness of the Quality Framework and the importance of evaluating engagement activity. It led to the identification of several improvement opportunities, including staff awareness sessions, making better use of volunteer input, developing an engagement strategy, exploring a wider range of engagement approaches, and strengthening support for staff involved in engagement.

The SNBTS team highlighted that the tailored support helped build their confidence in an area where they had limited previous experience. They described the support as flexible, practical and responsive, and found the team approachable and easy to work with

Link in comments.

24/09/2026

Do you want to find out more about the work of Healthcare Improvement Scotland?

Take part in our Annual Review on Monday 2 November from 09:30-11:00. You can join in-person at our Glasgow office or online through MS Teams.

At the event, you’ll hear about some of our achievements over the past year and future priorities.

Questions about our work are encouraged. If you want to ask something, you can submit a question in advance on the registration form or ask on the day in our facilitated Q&A session.

More information and registration details on our website.

Address

1 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
EH129EB

Website

https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/

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