This conference – the 10th annual care of older people in Scotland conference – focuses on the core challenges facing us now in care delivery for older people. We want everyone to have the best health and care possible in older age. However, we are getting older and living longer in larger numbers – so the costs of care are rising remorselessly. At the same time the economic outlook is weak and public finances are under severe pressure. In this context how do we fund care excellence? How do we best structure services and scrutiny? What are the core elements of best practice that we should be trying to achieve in contemporary care of older people?
This agenda examines the care of older people in a time of staffing and funding challenge. It asks how we empower older people and value the care workers supporting them. It looks at what we need to do to get it right on frailty and pharmacy to drive up quality of life for older people. It is intended for all people and organisations involved in the care of older people in Scotland.
The fastest growing age group in Scotland is projected to be those aged 75 and over, increasing by 79% in the 25 years leading up to 2041. Life expectancy has risen and the likelihood of death before 65 has reduced. While health and social care spending on over 65s with at least one long-term condition is rising, is the efficiency of service provision for older people working well? Care delivery for older people takes place in a wide variety of settings. In hospitals and institutions delivering episodic care, older people tend to be admitted to acute settings, often for longer periods than medically required. Statistics show that older people living alone – often in accommodation unsuited to their care needs – is helping to drive the smaller households' trend.
The challenge then is to deliver the right care, in the right setting with care givers who are well trained and well versed in best practice. We need to both meet future health and care demands and balance immediate needs with the challenge of a long-term preventative approach to older people’s health. How should we innovate to adopt and share best practice? What fresh challenges are emerging to be met?
The conference explores where we stand in trying to secure the best care for older people. It discusses how we deliver consistent and high quality care for our ageing population. Speakers will focus on care standards and provision, the empowerment of older people and managing change while fostering innovation. Can we ensure best practice drives decision making? How do we prepare care services and workers to meet immediate needs while pursuing a long-term preventative approach to older people’s health?
Benefits of attending
Who should attend
This conference will be relevant for anyone involved in the care and support of older people in Scotland in home, medical, residential, care and other settings. This includes:
Interim Chief Executive
Scottish Social Services Council
Chief Executive
Age Scotland
Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement
Care Inspectorate
Chief Executive
Scottish Care
Policy and Practice Lead
Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scotland
Consultant Geriatrician and National Clinical Lead for Frailty,
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Head of Improvement Support
Care Inspectorate
Maree Allison
Interim Chief Executive
Scottish Social Services Council
Maree joined the SSSC in 2010 and was appointed Director of Regulation in 2015. Before joining the SSSC Maree was a litigation solicitor working in private practice. Maree is currently Acting CEO.
Katherine Crawford
Chief Executive
Age Scotland
Katherine joined Age Scotland as Chief Executive Officer in July 2023, bringing 20 years of experience in the charity sector working with Parkinson’s UK. Katherine has seen first-hand the challenges older people can face through that work and it is seeing the impact of charities like ours that energises and inspires her.
Bringing experience of influencing and campaigning at the Scottish government, working with volunteers and colleagues in developing and delivering services to benefit people wherever they live, Katherine is keen to ensure every single older person in Scotland is confident that their voice is heard and knows that Age Scotland is here for them.
Living in Fife with her husband, she enjoys getting out to the beach with her lively re-homed Labrador and playing lots of social tennis. Katherine has one son, who is bouncing between home and college.
Edith Macintosh
Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement
Care Inspectorate
Edith Macintosh is Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement at the Care Inspectorate.
She was appointed as Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement in August 2020 after acting in the role as an interim from December 2018.
Edith qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1983 and worked across health and social care holding a variety of roles across Scotland predominantly in the NHS and latterly was service manager for Occupational Therapy services in the NHS in Perth and Kinross until 2009. From there she joined the Care Inspectorate (then Care Commission) in September 2009 as the Rehabilitation Consultant and provided leadership and improvement expertise for several national initiatives and publications to support providers and partnerships to improve health and wellbeing in the social care sector.
Edith was in her previous role as Head of Improvement Support since January 2017 and had strategic oversight for developing and strengthening the Care Inspectorate’s improvement support role across Scotland supported by a team of improvement advisors. She designed the CAPA improvement programme and was the programme lead. Edith’s great passion is to inspire people and services to improve, realise their full potential and to make a positive difference to the lives of others.
Follow Edith on Twitter @EAMacahp
Donald Macaskill (Dr)
Chief Executive
Scottish Care
Dr Donald Macaskill has worked for many years in the health and social care sectors across the United Kingdom. A particular professional focus has been issues related to dementia, bereavement, palliative care and individual human rights. Most recently he has acted as a Commissioner on the UK Bereavement Commission.
He is the CEO of Scottish Care, the representative body for care providers in the independent sector, namely private, charitable, and employee-owned care organisations which includes care home and home care organisations.
He serves on a number of Scottish, UK and international charities and boards related to health and social care.
Fiona McIntyre
Policy and Practice Lead
Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scotland
Fiona is the Policy and Practice Lead for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Scotland supporting the strategic leadership of the RPS Scotland Directorate and the RPS Scottish Pharmacy Board by leading on policy development and professional support. She is a registered pharmacist passionate about patient safety; developing systems thinking and a learning culture with experience of leading significant adverse event reviews in health care.
She recently joined the Royal Pharmaceutical Society after a career spanning over 20 years in NHS Scotland in various positions, where Fiona was responsible for strategic and clinical leadership including setting and reviewing standards for clinical pharmacy services, maintaining quality management systems and implementing national policy on medicines and pharmacy.
Lara Mitchell
Consultant Geriatrician and National Clinical Lead for Frailty,
Healthcare Improvement Scotland
Dr Lara Mitchell, is a Consultant Physician in Older People’s services QEUH, South Sector; NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. She is National Clinical Lead for Frailty at Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
Lara has worked in medical management for nine years and as clinical lead for acute unscheduled care at QEUH developed a multi-disciplinary frailty service using quality improvement methodology. Her subspecialty interest is cardiovascular health and she set up and developed the syncope service in 2003 and runs a weekly Rapid Access Syncope Clinic (RASCL) and multidisciplinary meetings with cardiology and neurology.
She completed the Scottish Quality and Safety fellowship in 2021. She is on the Cardiovascular Special Interest Group of the British Geriatrics Society, is a BJC editorial board member and an Honorary Clinical senior lecturer.
Craig Morris
Head of Improvement Support
Care Inspectorate
Craig joined the Care Inspectorate in 2019 as a Senior Improvement Advisor for the Early Learning and Childcare Improvement Programme. He was then appointed Head of Improvement Support (including involvement and equalities) and, in 2022, he was the Interim Executive Director for Strategy and Improvement.
Prior to joining the Care Inspectorate, Craig managed four national/local quality improvement programmes, including a three-year tenure with the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Childcare as a National Permanence Consultant. He was the Programme Manager for the Fife Early Years Collaborative between 2013 and 2016. Craig also spent time in a local health and social improvement partnership as a Manager for Quality Assurance. He has a master’s qualification in Community Learning and Development (CLD) and in his earlier career, he managed and practised across all areas of CLD.
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