Leadership Conference shines on the work of NAHSCP

Senior managers from across North Ayrshire Council recently gathered at Saltcoats Town Hall for our latest Connected Leadership Conference.

The event kicked off with an update on fraud prevention by John McCallum (Senior Manager - Audit, Fraud, Safety and Risk), followed by a budget update from Mark Boyd (Head of Service - Finance).

The remainder of the event was handed over to representatives of North Ayrshire Health and Social Partnership (NAHSCP), who shared an overview of the wide range of services provided by the Partnership, as well as the current demographic and financial challenges affecting the demand for - and provision of - these services.

Attendees took part in a workshop that looked at resource allocation, highlighting the difficult decisions faced by Partnership on a daily basis. The activity saw each table discussing real life, anonymised case studies to decide how they would spend the available budget based on the information provided, with many commenting on how tough it had been to prioritise the cases and decide who was most in need of the support requested.

After a quick coffee break, Peter McArthur (Senior Manager – Addiction Services) and Michael McLennan (Lead Officer – North Ayrshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership) gave an update on the latest drug related death statistics for North Ayrshire, as well some of the work being done locally and nationally to prevent these tragic events.

This was followed by a session on life-saving drug Naloxone from Leanne Woods (Addictions Education and Prevention Specialist - Prevention and Service Support Team), looking at how the drug works to temporarily reverse the effects of an opiate overdose, how to spot the signs of an overdose, and how to safely use a Naloxone kit.