Two projects in Argyll and Bute have been shortlisted for this year's prestigious Quality Improvement Awards.

The Quality Improvement Faculty by Argyll and Bute Council and NHS Highland has been shortlisted for the Achieving Results at Scale Award, whilst the Argyll and Bute GIRFEC/Quality Improvement group is up for the Team Award for its approach to Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC).

The Quality Improvement Awards are run by the Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Now in their fourth year, the awards celebrate and showcase the brilliant range of quality improvement practice that has been taking place across Scotland to make services the best they possibly can be for babies, children, young people and their families in all aspects of their lives.

Argyll and Bute Council's Head of Education, Anne Paterson, said: "I am delighted that we have been shortlisted for these awards. The Quality Improvement Faculty stems from the Argyll and Bute Family Pathway and is based on building strong, local relationships. To date we have 12 people from across the council and the NHS who have completed national training for the model for improvement. This group sits on our practitioner forums to help bring about positive change for our young people. The staff behind this faculty have worked tirelessly to make it a success, undergoing training whilst still carrying out their day to day jobs. I am very pleased it has been recognised at a national level."


Mrs Paterson continued: "The GIRFEC programme is something we have worked on jointly with the NHS, and aims to improve outcomes for all children and young people. GIRFEC builds on universal health and education services, starting antenatally through the early years, and includes work with all children and young people. Both these projects have required a lot of hard work and commitment, and I would like to express my sincerest thanks to both teams for helping to make this happen."

Yvonne McNeilly, the council's Policy Lead for Education, agreed: "Together with our colleagues in the NHS, we are committed to ensuring that our children and young people get the very best start in life. Both of these initiatives have the wellbeing of our young people at the very heart of them and I would like to wish them both the very best of luck at the awards."

Kieron Green, the council's Policy Lead for Health and Social Care, said: "The needs of each family are different and both these programmes take that into account, enabling us to make decisions about providing appropriate support. They identify what our children and young people need in order to progress and do well now and in the future. We have hard working, often award winning, staff who put the needs of our young people first and it is extremely rewarding to see their commitment paying off."

Patricia Renfrew, GIRFEC Lead for Argyll and Bute HSCP added: "I am delighted 'Embedding the GIRFEC Approach in Argyll and Bute' has been selected as a finalist for the 2019 Quality Improvement Awards. We are dedicated about improving GIRFEC practice and a Quality Improvement approach to achieving this is essential. Having a multi-agency group of GIRFEC advisors has supported us to develop improvements in the system. The GIRFEC advisors are trained on using the Model for Improvement, ensuring our improvement activity is developed in a structured and planned way."