Vital that Moray planning resources are focussed in correct place

EARLY INTERVENTION COULD cut costs and reduce long-term demands on public services being met by Moray Council and the NHS.

That is the view of the Moray Community Planning Partnership, who say they will insist that the role early prevention plays in partnership strategies is part of future planning processes.

In a move that could result in a revised set of priorities and a wholesale shift in resources for partners including Moray Council and the NHS, the Prevention Working Group has recommended that before being given access to funding and before setting targets, all Community Planning partners will have to demonstrate that they have considered early intervention and prevention.

Director of Education and Social Care in Moray, Laurence Findlay said: “It is vital that all community planning partners focus their resources in the right place at the right time, ensuring the most effective use of ever decreasing public resources.

“By focusing on a preventative approach people will hopefully, in time, be less reliant on costly public resources in future.

“Investment in prevention within all partners has the potential to help reconcile high demands on public services, squeezed resources and reducing inequalities.”

The Planning Partnership also welcomed a report by tsiMoray on how the third sector can work with the public sector for the benefit of the people of Moray.

The report, called Compact 2016-18, is a voluntary agreement between the two sectors to acknowledge the contribution each has to play, recognises the roles and priorities of each group and sets out the protocols and principles of working together.

The Prevention Working Group was set up in 2015 to develop Community Planning Partnership wide approaches to Prevention.

The group is made up of officers from Education and Social Care within the Moray Council as well as the Council’s Corporate Policy Unit Manager and Community Safety Officer, NHS, SFRS, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, tsiMoray, Moray College UHI and Police Scotland.

It meets quarterly to analyse data in relation to Early Years, School Age population, Transitions to Adulthood, Working age population and the Elderly.