A report to the council’s Executive Committee noted that South Lanarkshire’s Integration Joint Board (IJB) has approved its Strategic Commissioning Plan for 2025–2028.

Against the backdrop of significant and complex challenges for health and social care, the Plan targets five strategic goals – summarised as Nurture, Access, Flow, Recovery and Protect – as the key priorities for service delivery and transformation.

Lesley McDonald, outgoing Chair of the South Lanarkshire IJB, said: “We know the difference that effective health and social care services make to the lives of thousands of people across our communities each and every day.

“That is why each of our strategic goals tackles a critical challenge head-on – from supporting more children to meet their developmental milestones, to shifting the balance of care from hospital to community settings and improving access to primary care.”

Professor Soumen Sengupta, Chief Officer of South Lanarkshire IJB, added: “One of the privileges of my role is that I get to see first-hand the impact that our capable and compassionate staff can and do make on a daily basis. I also know how deeply their professionalism and dedication is valued by local people – from supporting infants and parents right through to providing care and comfort to those requiring end-of-life care.

“My thanks then to all of our staff and to our partners for their ongoing dedication and their drive to embrace new ways of working and models of care. And my thanks to our patients, service users, informal carers and communities for their encouragement, their feedback and their support as we continue to strive to do our best by them.”

South Lanarkshire’s Integration Joint Board (IJB) Strategic Commissioning Plan for 2025–2028 can be downloaded and an animation of the plan has also been created.