Project summary

1. National Higher Education Demonstration Sites Project with
University of the Highlands and Islands, NHS Highland and Skills
for Health
Project Summary
The project has been funded by Skills for Health to enable the development of self
management modules to be delivered by University of Highlands and Islands (UHI). Other
key partners were invited to be part of the steering group - NHS Education for Scotland,
Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland (LTCAS), and Highland & Argyll & Bute Councils.
The project initially produced an audit of self management resources available to staff and
patient and gathered feedback about gaps in resources and educational materials from
potential stakeholders. On the back of the audit, the project mapped self management
competencies against the Skills for Health 7 principles of self management and LTCAS 5
principles of self management. This has enabled the development of a self management
competency framework tool.
In response to a need which was emerging from the audit it was agreed to develop 2
Masters level modules to be delivered to Lead Practitioners and to deliver using a blended
learning approach combining online materials and discussions with face to face sessions.
Module 1: Enabling Change –introduce participants briefly to the policy position as well as
the skills and knowledge shared between the three different agendas directed towards
‘shifting the responsibility for care’ Psychological theories of motivation, attribution, and
coping. This section of the course would consider the theory base which helps us to
understand some of the important beliefs which determine someone’s view of their illness
and their ability to cope. Consultation—communication styles: using a collaborative
approach to consultation to facilitate change in client health behaviour. Resources and best
fit. It is important that the characteristics of the resource match the needs and
characteristics of the client. Service Evaluation – an opportunity to look at some of the
service evaluation tool-kits and consider them in relation to their own service delivery.
Module 2: Leading Change— introduce students to models of management and theories
of change management. Approaches to undertaking evaluation are examined. Students are
tasked with reviewing own service delivery against principles of self management. Students
identify aspects of their service which would benefit from working in an interagency manner
to facilitate self management. A Review cycle is applied where students select change
target, change mechanism, evaluative measures and report on the implementation of the
change.
A resource pack of learning elements has also been developed as a lasting legacy of the
project. This includes:
 A HAP (Health Action Plan) - an online tool which supports practitioners in liaison
with client or clients individually in identifying and working towards health behaviour
goals
 A self management competency framework tool - a set of competencies developed
from Skills for Health competencies and mapped to LTCAS principles of self
management, the framework is a self assessment tool designed to assist
practitioners to support people to self manage their condition

2. Ongoing work will continue to further improve the competency toolkit and to embed both the
competencies and the HAP tool in practice.
A self management champion’s network will be developed to support our new champions in
practice and to facilitate change in their workplace and further develop learning resources.
The partnership aspect of this project was awarded a QNIS Partners in Practice award in
2009 & a QNIS research award in 2011 to explore how an enablement approach has been
embedded into practice by the wider community teams in Australia and then test that model
within the Scottish Healthcare system.