The shortage of GPs in some areas is driving better use of others’ skills. However, time is needed to grow the number of professionals needed. At the same time there are untapped, or unnavigated assets in the community. There are people who support each other and people who could support peers, but would benefit from formal and informal health, social care, housing and business supports. There are also people who could help navigate the wide and varied array of supports available.

In Scotland, policies that support improvement of peer support whether that be professionals or patients and people who use services include Realistic Medicine. This calls the medical profession to share decision making and focus on value managed care I.e.making the most of resources to do the right thing, at the right time for each person. There is a Link Worker policy that hasn’t yet gained traction. Primary Care Improvement Plans are being developed and a Primary Care Adminstrative Collaborative is intended to build skills for improvement and has implementing navigator roles as a key objective.

In Forth Valley, which has a population of ~ 370,000 the concept of a Community Front Door is being developed, with finding solutions to how peers, whether that be people who need and use services and health and social care professionals, housing and local authority supports and third sector and informal neighbourhood supports, find their way to each other.

Linking these two – primary care collaboration and building a community front door – is a great opportunity to learn about and find solutions to peer support and care navigation working together to meet needs of people in our communities.

The need for navigation to supports is a nationwide issue, but there is limited accessible learning about solutions ,how to scale them and balance consistency of standard with tailored responses. We have the opportunity to link up people in communities with each other and supports and provide a truly person centred service. Learning at every stage would feed into the Q community and we would be looking for input and contribution at each stage.