Edinburgh Napier University

  This study explores the challenges faced by Principal Stakeholders in achieving Scotland’s strategic approach to health and social care integration. This is a developing area for academic literature, limited to, but not devoid of the experiences of integration of specific public sector areas and the experience of other countries that have implemented an integrated approach.
The research studies the views and opinions of 12 Chief Officers from three areas of public sector provision; the Scottish Government, Heath Boards and Local Authorities to elicit their initial fears and concerns, approaches and development. This qualitative research approach provided a richness and depth of data which is presented within the thesis. The evidence gathered informed the design of the influencing factors and a conceptual model for health and social care integration and importantly for future integration models which may be applied to future projects.
It is concluded from this study that health and social care integration while challenging, is achievable through a planned approach when considering the key influencing factors. The factors, are flexible depending on the stage of integration and the priorities of the Integration Board, and therefore should be used accordingly. The development of the factors would not have been achievable without the considerable input of the participants involved.
The key contributions of this research span across academic literature, research methodology and professional practice. The study contributes to the current research considerations by developing an approach based on the work undertaken by the professionals and learning from the unintended consequences of the experiences of such early intervention. Finally, the influencing factors and conceptual model are offered as evidence of the research undertaken as a contribution to practice. The value to academics, practitioners and the wider public service and agencies involved in integration lies in the frameworks contextual factors and ultimately the flexibility of application.