We work collaboratively with an extensive range of other organisations, groups and people. We are continually adapting how we approach our work to reflect what is required for us to best support the services and people we work with.

We value our working relationships, including those with:

• 31 Health and Social Care Partnerships
• 32 local authorities
• 21 NHS boards
• national clinical groups
• a wide range of housing, third and independent sector organisations, and
• people who use services, carers, and their local communities.

Understanding our stakeholders’ priorities and responding to them is a crucial element of how we plan our work. This is an area we intend to strengthen further in line with The Blueprint for Good Governance published by Scottish Government in February 2019.

As well as working with local and regional partners, we work in collaboration with other national and support organisations, for example to co-ordinate our activities where a national approach will improve quality, value, efficiency and sustainability. Among the many national agencies we work closely with are the Care Inspectorate, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), the Improvement Service and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). We also engage with international organisations who undertake work similar to ours, so we can learn from each other.

Our different teams and functions engage with an extensive range of stakeholders. One way we will strengthen our ‘quality planning’ is through developing more consistent, organisation-wide approaches to engaging with our stakeholders about the work we will carry out in future.