CHANGING LIVES: CITIZEN LEADERSHIP
PREFACE
This year will see the publication of much of the work that has been developed nationally since Changing Lives, the report of the review of social work services in Scotland, was launched in February 2006. I am delighted to be able to introduce one of the first of those to you, Citizen Leadership.
As you may know, the Scottish Government established the User and Carer Forum upon publication of Changing Lives, in order to provide an opportunity for service users and carers to directly influence and shape the development and implementation of the Changing Lives agenda.
The Forum was particularly asked to follow up on the idea of Citizen Leadership and has developed a set of principles, with suggested standards and indicators to help demonstrate how these can apply, by which the leadership contribution of those who use services can be guided and supported.
I have been asked to write the preface as chair of the Practice Governance Change Programme and I am very pleased to do so. While this work has been developed by, and properly belongs to the User and Carer Forum, the drafts have been consulted upon widely and enjoys the endorsement the Changing Lives Programme, providing an important contribution to building the capacity for delivering personalised services. The Scottish Government is also sponsoring a pilot training programme to support implementation and the development of a toolkit. This will include users and carers and practitioners, to ensure that there is a real impact on practice.
The phrase Citizen Leadership has been carefully chosen to reflect a belief that this work is about more than advocacy and that those involved are not simply current users of services. The clear intention is to ensure that people in Scotland are enabled to have more control over their lives and the services which support them and on behalf of the Practice Governance Change Programme I commend this to you.
Andrew Lowe
Chair
Practice Governance Change Programme
Changing Lives
March 2008