NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Council have agreed the services that will come together as Argyll and Bute’s Health and Social Care Partnership.

From 1 April 2015 all NHS services in Argyll and Bute, and Adult and Children and Families Social Work Services of Argyll and Bute Council will deliver a single, integrated service. 

Sally Loudon, Chief Executive of Argyll and Bute Council said: “This approach means that we maintain the benefits of one unified social work service, which is regarded as the best model of care. Our focus is on developing a single service with the people who need support at its heart. This is another important step forward.”

Elaine Mead, Chief Executive of NHS Highland said: “This combination of services has been assessed as the best fit between NHS Highland and council services because this will place people firmly at the centre of their care and ensure our teams deliver flexible and responsive care, which is streamlined and simple to access.

“A lot of people are working extremely hard to deliver a successful Partnership for the people of Argyll and Bute.”

NHS Highland and the council are working towards having an integrated service in place by April 2015, in line with the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act.

In Argyll and Bute, staff who work for NHS Highland will remain NHS employees and council staff will remain council employees. The partnership’s budget will be pooled from both the council and NHS Highland and will be accountable to both agencies.

The scope of services was agreed by NHS Highland Board on 3rd June and by Argyll and Bute Council on 26th June.