Making a difference to health and care
Across our website you'll find examples of how health and care services are engaging with people and communities.
We want to share stories about the concrete changes and improvements which have come about as a result of people and services working together.
Digital Front Door: Equality Impact Assessment
The 'Digital Front Door' is a Health and Care Programme developed by the Scottish Government and COSLA. This programme highlights how the Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) process was central to designing a new way for people in Scotland to access health and care services.
Find out moreCOVID Realities diary project
COVID Realities was a research project looking into the experiences of parents and carers on low incomes during the pandemic. Participants submitted regular diaries to describe their daily lives.
Find out moreNeurodevelopmental Differences
Using a range of engagement methods to explore how the health and wellbeing of children and young people with neurodevelopmental differences in Shetland could be improved
Find out moreInvisible Truths participatory arts project
Maternal Mental Health Scotland's Experts by Experience group used creative methods to give an artistic response to experiences of perinatal mental health services in Scotland.
Find out moreLockdown Lowdown
The Scottish Youth Parliament, Young Scot and YouthLink Scotland partnered to deliver Lockdown Lowdown – a project to hear the concerns of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Find out moreUsing Ketso Connect
When usual activities were not possible, with lockdown restrictions, Ketso Connect was used to enable adults on the autistic spectrum to meet, socially distanced and in an outdoor space.
Find out moreOnline community engagement in Glasgow
During the pandemic, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde carried out a range of remote and online engagement with local communities to find out people's experiences of accessing services in new ways.
Find out moreScotland in Lockdown
Researchers at the University of Glasgow interviewed people from isolated and marginalised communities to understand the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Find out moreCOVID in Colour
Over 60 young Black people and People of Colour completed an online survey to provide their experiences of living in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Find out moreDevon Virtual Voices Panel
An online citizens' panel has been an effective way to gather a representative view from the population of Devon, helping to shape appropriate health messaging.
Find out moreNHS Lothian Youth Panel
The NHS Lothian Youth Panel meets quarterly on Zoom so that the views and experiences of young people aged 11 to 26 can influence the design of new services.
Find out moreNHS Western Isles Patient Panel
A virtual Patient Panel brings people from island communities together to discuss health and care issues. Holding meetings online means more people can get involved more regularly.
Find out moreFollowing Young Fathers Further
Researchers at the University of Lincoln studying the experiences of young fathers found that telephone interviews are preferred over online interviews when face-to-face isn't possible.
Find out moreBristol Young Person's Advisory Group
The Bristol Young Person's Advisory Group started to hold its meetings online so that young people can continue to influence how research is carried out.
Find out moreMedical practice Facebook group
When its Patient Participation Group could no longer meet due to the pandemic, Benbecula Medical Practice used its Facebook page to engage patients in discussions about services.
Find out moreParkhead hub consultation
A dedicated website, feedback forms and live web chats allowed local people to find out more about a proposed health and social care hub, and to give their views.
Find out moreGathering the experiences of people living with sight loss during COVID
RNIB carried out a 6-week study of how people living with sight loss were affected by COVID. Surveys, interviews and focus groups helped gain a rich understanding of the challenges people faced.
Find out moreInvolving pregnant women and new parents through Facebook
Setting up a Facebook group has been an effective way to involve pregnant women and new parents, and to get their views on policies and services.
Find out moreCOVID pregnancy
Researchers at King's College London surveyed over 1,700 women to find out about people's experiences of pregnancy and birth during the coronavirus pandemic.
Find out moreQuality Improvement Partner Panels
Quality Improvement Partner Panels support the work of health and social care organisations and innovators by involving the public in improvement projects and the development of innovation.
Find out moreInvolving young people during the pandemic
NHS Tayside overcame COVID-19 restrictions to involve children and young people in choosing designs for decorative ceiling panels and the new artwork for a new Children's Theatre Suite.
Find out moreGathering public and professional views on Near Me
A Scotland-wide exercise gathered views from the public and professionals to support the national roll-out of the Near Me video consulting service
Find out moreVirtual meetings for public partners
Healthcare Improvement Scotland holds virtual meetings to keep in touch with its public partners during lockdown.
Find out moreTrialling rapid online deliberation to inform public policy
A partnership of 4 organisations trialled a new model of rapid, online deliberation that would enable citizens to feed in to the development of policy for moving out of lockdown.
Find out moreSurveying GP practice patients
Online and paper-based surveys were used to gather feedback from over 1,600 patients registered with a practice in Arbroath to help inform the future model of care.
Find out moreInvolving public partners using Zoom
Healthcare Improvement Scotland public partners give feedback on their experiences of using Zoom to participate in meetings
Find out moreGathering feedback from volunteers at a distance
The Head, Heart, Bag and Bin method was adapted in order to gather feedback at a distance from NHS volunteers on their experiences during COVID-19
Find out moreOnline focus groups using web chat
Real-time web chats were used to gather views and experiences from consumers in a series of online focus groups in Germany.
Find out moreOnline conversation cafes
The Scottish Recovery Network adapted its existing face-to-face conversation café approach to create and deliver online conversation cafés.
Find out moreGathering experiences of people affected by deafness
Gathering people's experiences via survey and online meeting helped deafscotland to advise policy makers on how to make national responses more inclusive for people affected by deafness.
Find out moreNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde GP Out of Hours engagement
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Patient Experience and Public Involvement (PEPI) Team used social media alongside traditional methods to gather views on the GP Out of Hours service.
Find out moreEasy Read for Dumfries and Galloway
Dumfries & Galloway IJB worked with the Powerful Voices Together group to develop their Strategic Commissioning Plan. It was EASY with the group's lived experience and expert knowledge to hand!
Find out moreNHS Highland pop-up consultation
As part of a 12-week consultation for the redesign of adult health and care services in Caithness, NHS Highland held pop-up sessions for the public in libraries, village halls and vacant shops.
Find out moreEast Renfrewshire Pupil Voices
We worked with secondary school pupils in East Renfrewshire to find out what matters to them and how they would like to get involved with their local health and social care services.
Find out moreExperience Based Co-Design of NHS Lothian cancer centre
NHS Lothian used Experience Based Co-Design to inform the development of a case for change and core design principles for its new cancer treatment centre.
Find out moreUsing the Kawa River Model to engage patients
The State Hospital used the Kawa River Model approach to make a discussion with patients about service redesign more engaging
Find out moreNHS Tayside use of Mentimeter
NHS Tayside used electronic voting system Mentimeter to gather realtime feedback from participants at public engagement events.
Find out more