Consultations

Influencing Aberdeenshire’s Alcohol Licensing Board 
The law requires that Aberdeenshire's Licensing Board conduct a reassessment of alcohol-outlet provision and review their alcohol licencing policy over the next 10 months. This policy will apply for the next 5 years and its review offers a rare opportunity to improve a significant determinant of health in Aberdeenshire. The current policy has not managed to reverse the dramatic increase in alcohol-related harm seen in Aberdeenshire: best summarised by the more than doubling of alcohol-specific deaths seen in the past 10 years. Aberdeenshire's Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) will engage in this review process. Your experience and opinions about the impact of alcohol in your community are highly influential. They would like to capture your views by inviting you to complete this brief survey. You can read the supporting Aberdeenshire Community Health Paper here. 

UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan Project
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) aims to build pride in place and increase life chances across the UK. It also looks to empower places to invest in local priorities across three priority areas of communities and place; supporting local business; and people and skills. Aberdeenshire has been allocated over £8m of funding over three years from the programme. An investment plan is being prepared to access the funding, with stakeholder input sought to help shape spending priorities and outcomes. This survey aims to capture stakeholder view on the supporting local business needs, opportunities and investment priorities for Aberdeenshire's UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan.  More details here. 

Hospital Homecoming - Patient Experience of Hospital Discharge
Have you been discharged from hospital in the last 12 months? Did you get the support you needed? What support would you have liked? We would love to hear your experience! Our Hospital Homecoming project is a two-year project aiming for faster discharge of patients by providing support from community groups and volunteers. This survey and your experiences will help to tell us what support is needed. Information will be shared with the NHS as part of the project reporting process but will remain anonymous. Take part in the survey here: Hospital Homecoming - Patient Experience of Hospital Discharge (office.com). For further information, contact Aimi Blueman on Tel: 07585 507524 or email: Aimi.Blueman@avashire.org.uk

The SeaFit Programme
The SeaFit Programme is a joint initiative between the Seafarers Hospital Society and The Fishermen’s Mission, to help support and improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of fishermen and their families around the United Kingdom. Recently the programme has helped deliver Covid-19 vaccinations, provided access to free physiotherapy services, and, in partnership with Live Life Aberdeenshire, provides a Healthy Lifestyle Advisor who can advise, signpost, or refer to local health & wellbeing services, support, and community groups. Completing this questionnaire will help identify the type of support which will be of most benefit to active fishing crews, retired fishermen, and the wider fishing community locally.

Recruitment for Pilot Study on Rural Healthcare
The COVID-19 pandemic meant lots of changes were made in the way healthcare appointments were provided. Aberdeen University is exploring the public’s perspectives on accessing and receiving healthcare in rural areas across Grampian during the pandemic and how these recent changes are affecting the experience of rural and remote healthcare. They are looking to collect insights from people who currently live in rural or remote Grampian through an online blog, focus groups, and interviews. You can post comments on the blog or you can submit responses via email to andrew.maclaren@abdn.ac.uk.

ASP Training Needs 
A responsibility of the Aberdeenshire Adult Protection Committee is to improve the skills and knowledge of those with a responsibility for the protection of adults at risk.  ​To support this, a training need analysis survey has been developed by the Grampian Adult Protection Learning and Development Group. The results from this survey will enable the Partnership to identify gaps in skills and knowledge and facilitate the development of appropriate training where there are gaps.
You can find the survey here: ASP Training Needs Survey 2021 (office.com)

Aberdeenshire Community Impact Assessment 
Share your thoughts about how Covid-19 has affected you and your community by completing Aberdeenshire Council's Community Impact Assessment Survey:
https://engage.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/hub-page/cia

Aberdeenshire Council Website Survey
If you are a regular user of the Aberdeenshire Council website, www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk, or have used it in the past, they would like to know what your experience was. Your feedback will help improve the website. This survey will take around 5 minutes to complete and can be found here.

Covid Testing Facilities Survey
NHS Grampian would like to understand how to support people in communities across Aberdeenshire to access COVID testing easily, even when they have no symptoms. This is because 1 in 3 people who are infected do not show any symptoms and can spread the infection without knowing. NHS Grampian would like to hear from you to help plan COVID testing facilities in your area. Please click the link to give your feedback: 5274 Asymptomatic Community Testing v2 (snapsurveys.com)

Tackling Food Poverty
Following raised awareness of a potential increase around hidden poverty in our communities due to Covid-19, statistics are being collated by Aberdeenshire Council and partner organisations to identify areas requiring support. See link to a short survey to gather your understanding/experience of food poverty in the area you work or volunteer in.
See also this link to the document "Human Right's approach to tackling food insecurity" which has been added to the partnership resource page.
Please find the survey here. 

SSSC Codes of Practice consultation

This Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) consultation is on the revised Codes of Practice for Social Service Workers and Employers. Views are requested from the social work, social care and children and young people workforce and employers, as well as people who use services, their families and carers and other stakeholders in the responses to this consultation.

The Codes were last updated in 2016 and there have been lots of changes since then that mean the time is right to review and update the Codes to make sure they are fit for the future. Over the last seven years new groups have joined the Register and the way care is delivered has changed. This review also allows an opportunity to make sure that the Codes align with national standards and frameworks including the Health and Social Care Standards and take account of the learning and recommendations from national reviews. You can access it here

Consultation on a New Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan for Scotland
The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) will publish a new Suicide prevention Strategy and Action Plan in September 2022. This will replace the current Suicide Prevention Action Plan: Every Life Matters which was published in 2018. The Strategy and Action Plan will approach suicide prevention in a way that takes into account all aspects of an individual’s experiences which could contribute to suicidal behaviour. This is the third and final stage of consultation on Scotland’s new Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan (2022). This document sets out a series of questions which relate to the draft Strategy and Action Plan which accompany this document. You can access and respond to this consultation online here. 

Scottish Government Bairns' Hoose Unit
The Scottish Government’s Bairns’ Hoose Unit is conducting an online survey about planned Bairns’ Hooses and how they will operate. From the information provided through this survey, analysts and policy makers are looking to increase their knowledge on how these settings may operate and the areas where more support is needed. Hearing about the opportunities and challenges will aid with supporting the development of a national Bairns’ Hoose model across Scotland. The findings from the survey will be shared with key stakeholders to inform local areas and partnerships for the development of Bairns’ Hoose. You will have an opportunity to comment on the draft of the report before it is shared with stakeholders.Complete the survey here.

What makes engagement meaningful - Have your say
The interim report from Scottish Recovery Network’s 'What makes engagement meaningful?' project is now available. It outlines participant insights from three national discussion events. For the next stage of the project, they have launched a short survey to give even more people the chance to share their experiences and learning in this area of work.
for more information, or to participate visit Meaningful engagement - Have your say! - Scottish Recovery Network.

Social Enterprise Scotland are conducting a survey to inform social enterprise development and procurement practice as part of the launch of their 'Corporate Challenge' to support businesses from the private, public and third sector to purchase more goods and services from social enterprises.
Backed by the Scottish Government, the scheme will see £1 million spent with social enterprises in the initial phase of the programme and the launch a new website directory to make it easier to find social enterprise suppliers across Scotland.
You can complete the survey here: Social Enterprise Scotland survey

Understanding self-quitting in Scotland 
Have you quit smoking on your own (without help from a health professional or medication) in the last 10 years? If so, the School of Social Sciences at Dundee University is interested in hearing your self-quitting story. In taking part in this study, you will be asked to attend an informal interview online or via phone call. As a thank you for your participation, you will receive a £10 supermarket voucher. Participants must be 18 years or older, resident in Scotland at the time of self-quitting, and smoke-free for at least the last 6 months.
Register your interest in participating here: Understanding self-quitting in Scotland

Scottish Government Consultation Hub
The Scottish Government wants to make it as easy as possible for those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work. They have a consultation hub on their website where you can view and take part in consultations as well as see consultations that have already been archived. Visit the hub here.