A policy post here (originally posted on the Get Healthy Start Facebook page, 22 Mar 2015): on helping Scotland to become the best place to grow up. I have been prompted to dig this out after seeing some recent tweets about Maslow’s hierarchy in the workplace and in schools. See these recent tweets here.

This post looks at UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, article 31 of UNCRC, and the particular gains from teaching more kids a musical instrument. Sources at end of post.

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Quality Improvement (QI) is a powerful approach for exploring and improving the way that healthcare is delivered. However, the technical terms surrounding the methodology can make QI seem inaccessible. This is a pity, as many of the techniques will be familiar to clinicians through their routine work. QI work is simply about making refinements to the way we work, one patient at a time, building a more reliable process, and keeping our sights on a bigger goal.

This blog explains some of the key principles and approaches of QI work, stripped of its jargon, using 4 common objects as an aide-memoire. The formal QI tools on which these objects are based are listed in the notes section at the end of this blog.

If you’d prefer a video summary then you can find a version here (Youtube).

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This blog provides a quick summary of two health/ public health advocacy campaigns in Scotland, both launched at Scottish Parliament during 2017.

Advocacy is an important part of Public Health work. The Public Health Advocacy Institute of Western Australia provides the following definition in their advocacy toolkit:

The word ‘advocate’ actually comes from a Latin word meaning ‘to be called to stand beside’. Advocacy can be thought of as “the pursuit of influencing outcomes – including public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions – that directly affect people’s lives.”

The “State of Child Health” report was launched by Royal College of Physicians and Child Health on 26 January 2017, with events across the UK, including a RCPCH Scotland event at Scottish Parliament. I have summarised the Twitter activity around that day here.

The “Fairer Lives Healthier Future” call to action was launched by the Faculty of Public Health in Scotland on 20 September, with events at the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh and Scottish Parliament. Twitter activity during and after the launch is summarised here.

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