Living Well Strategy Refresh 2026 Final Draft V1 (2)
Argyll and Bute Council · 11 June 2026
Back to Argyll and Bute HSCP Strategic Planning Group — 11 June 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Visit us: ablivingwell.org Strategy Refresh, 2026-2031 Shaping the conditions for people and communities to flourish in Argyll and Bute 1
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I am pleased to introduce the refreshed Living Well Strategy, which sets out our shared ambition to support people in Argyll & Bute to live healthy, independent and fulfilling lives within strong and resilient communities. Living Well sits at the heart of our approach to population health and prevention. It recognises that good health and wellbeing are shaped not only by health and social care services, but by the wider social, economic and environmental conditions in which people live. Strong communities, meaningful connections, access to information and support, and opportunities to manage health and wellbeing closer to home all play a vital role in enabling people to live well. This refreshed strategy is being published alongside our Joint Strategic Plan 2026–2031, and the alignment between the two is intentional. Together, they set a clear direction of travel for the Partnership: a shift towards prevention, early intervention and community‐based support, delivered in a way that is person‐centred, evidence‐informed and sustainable within a challenging financial context. Living Well provides the population‐health lens through which many of the ambitions of the Joint Strategic Plan will be realised. This strategy builds on what we have learned through engagement, evidence and lived experience, and recognises the critical contribution of unpaid carers, volunteers and community‐led activity. Foreword 2 Evan Beswick Chief Officer, Argyll & Bute HSCP I am very pleased to welcome this refreshed Living Well Strategy 2026–2031. One of its strengths is that it recognises something we increasingly understand across Argyll and Bute: good health and wellbeing are built not only through clinical or statutory intervention, but through people, relationships, communities and the conditions that allow individuals to live well. Prevention, enablement and self-management are therefore central to creating a system that is more effective for people and more sustainable for the future. This is especially important in Argyll and Bute, where rurality, island living, inequalities, transport challenges and demographic change all shape people’s experience of health and care. At the same time, we have strong communities, a committed workforce and a vibrant third sector that is often closest to people’s everyday lives. The Living Well programme already recognises the importance of multi-partner collaboration and provides a real platform from which to do things differently and better. From a third sector perspective, this strategy rightly values community-based support, early intervention and partnership working. Voluntary and community organisations help people stay connected, build confidence, access practical support and manage their health and wellbeing in ways that work for them. Often, this support helps prevent needs from escalating and reduces pressure elsewhere in the system. I also welcome the emphasis on co-production, lived experience and collaboration. This strategy provides a positive foundation for strengthening our collective commitment to a more preventative, person-centred and community-connected approach across Argyll and Bute. Takki Sulaiman, Chief Executive Argyll & Bute TSI
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3 On behalf of the Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership (CPP), I am delighted to welcome this refreshed Living Well Strategy 2026-2031. At the core of community planning is both the aspiration to reduce inequalities through collaboration and the ambition to enable communities by empowering the individual. This strategy applies both principles to improve health and wellbeing for the local population. I am delighted to see our CPP Outcomes Improvement Plan priority, Community Wellbeing, reflected within this refresh. The actions dovetail with what our communities consistently tell us are their top priorities for community wellbeing; a voice in collective decision making, a sense of connection and belonging, and equality of access to sustainable community services, facilities, and opportunities. A key strength of the strategy is its grounding in the voices and experiences of people across Argyll and Bute. The themes of connection, prevention, and the need to reduce barriers created by geography and inequality all resonate strongly with the priorities of the Community Planning Partnership. The emphasis on co-production, community leadership, and partnership working reflects our shared commitment to doing things with communities, not to them. The Living Well Strategy 2026-2031 embodies the values at the heart of community planning and creates a partnership platform to help create a future where healthy and empowered individuals are living well in thriving communities across Argyll and Bute. Gary I’Anson, Chair of Argyll & Bute Community Planning Partnership
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Page 5 The Living Well Strategy 2019-2024 Page 6 Prevention focused approaches to supporting self management and prevention Page 7-8 Engagement and recurring themes Page 9 Step 2 Other considerations and the wider context Page 10 Conclusion Page 12-15 Outcomes and Actions Page 16 Appendices Contents 4
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A series of Living Well small grants was set up and monitored to support community led activity aligned to the strategy Alignment of Living Well to the requirements of the pandemic response Community engagement to gather views on how people’s mental well-being can be better supported in local communities Development of a continually refreshed health information booklet which includes local and national signposting and information circulated widely out to communities Self-management and pain management information and support in local communities delivered by Arthritis UK (formerly known as Versus Arthritis) Prevention partnership between the HSCP, Macmillan and Live Argyll to develop wellbeing coaching interventions. Delivery of Health Behaviour Change training to health, social care and third sector staff. Development of link worker roles to support people to better self-manage and feel more included in their community. 02 The Living Well Strategy 2019-2024 The Living Well Strategy is a strategy developed by Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and our partners to support people to live well with long-term health conditions. The original strategy was launched in September 2019 with a key aim of supporting people living with or at risk of developing a long-term condition in Argyll and Bute. Living Well highlights the importance of self- management and sets out our intentions to support people to live healthy and well lives in Argyll and Bute. Living Well was led by a Steering Group with members from a range of sectors including the Health and Social Care Partnership, the Third Sector Interface, the Living Well Networks and other community groups/organisations. The 2019-2024 Strategy had four themes: How did we do? Key achievements include: Additionally since 2022 following a merger of the Living Well steering group with the Prevention Programme Board an opportunity arose to refresh the focus of activities. 2 sub groups were formed: Community rehabilitation and wellbeing Communities working together The original Living Well Strategy ran from 2019-2024 and further information about the development of the strategy, progress and outcomes can be found here - Living Well Strategy — Living Well. Appendix 1 also outlines the original action plan and what was achieved in each action. 5
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The Scottish Government and COSLA published the Population Health Framework in June 2025, with the aim of improving Scotland’s health and reducing inequalities over the next 10 years. The Framework’s targets are to improve Scottish life expectancy whilst reducing the life expectancy gap by 2035. Prevention Focused System – Strengthen collective accountability for population health outcomes and inequalities Social and Economic Factors – Improve the social and economic factors that support better health and reduce inequalities Places and Communities – Create healthy and sustainable places by working in and with communities Enabling Healthy Living-Develop supportive environments that promote health and well being and reduce harming activities Equitable Health and Care - Foster a health and social care system that delivers equity, prevention The Living Well Strategy 2026–2031 is a key delivery mechanism for the Argyll and Bute Joint Strategic Plan (JSP), providing the population health and prevention-focused lens through which its vision and priorities are realised. The JSP sets out a clear ambition for people in Argyll and Bute to live healthy, independent lives in resilient communities and to be supported to thrive through person-centred, integrated care. Living Well complements this by adopting an asset-based approach that builds on the strengths of individuals, families, communities and partners, and by working collaboratively with people and communities as equal partners in improving health and wellbeing. Together, the strategies emphasise a whole-system approach that moves beyond services alone, focusing on prevention, early intervention and the wider social, economic and environmental determinants of health, to support sustainable improvements in population health and to create the conditions in which people and communities across Argyll and Bute can live well and flourish. Prevention focused approaches to supporting self management and prevention The Framework recognises that health is primarily impacted by what happens outside of the health and care system. The Framework sets out how national and local government will work with public sector partners, community organisations and business to tackle these root causes of ill health. The focus on prevention, preventing ill health, and preventing further harm are all key elements of self-management and similar approaches are required. The Prevention Drivers of Health and Wellbeing identified in the Population Framework link very well with the Living Well Strategy. The Prevention Drivers are: Based on the King’s Fund Pillars of Population Health and Institute of Health Equity’s Eight Marmot Principles Scotland’s Population Health Framework 2025 – 2035 6 Argyll & Bute Joint Strategic Plan
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Argyll and Bute HSCP Strategies -Joint Strategic Plan -Draft Island Strategy -Carers Strategy -Living Well Strategy and engagement -Public Health, Mental health engagement -Corporate Parenting Plan -Children and Young People’s service plan This document describes how the Living Well Strategy has been updated and what it aims to achieve over the next five years. This strategy refresh will cover the period 2026-2031. The original Living Well Strategy was developed alongside the people affected by it. This means that the outcomes and actions from the original strategy were written after speaking with staff and a range of people within the community. We therefore looked at the views of people within the community which led to the first strategy and then mapped that to the feedback and engagement which had been gathered to inform several different strategies over the past few years. 05 What are we doing now? How did we refresh the Living Well Strategy? The Living Well Programme Board is the group which oversees the work of Living Well. In January 2025, the Programme Board agreed that a small group (short-life working group) should make sure that Living Well Strategy was still relevant, up-to-date and continued to meet the needs of Argyll and Bute. The refreshed Strategy would be launched early 2026. Timeline of the Living Well Strategy Refresh Partner Strategies -Argyll and Bute Outcome Improvement Plan -Argyll and Bute Community Learning & Development- Strategic Partnership Plan 2024- 2027 -Alcohol and Drug Partnership draft strategy -Health and wellbeing in Argyll and Bute (Macmillan) -Suicide prevention plans Our Approach Step 1 - Engagement We also looked at up-to-date data, for example that contained within the Argyll and Bute HSCP Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and locality profiles. We used this information to see whether the original Living Well aims were still relevant, and to see if anything needed removed or added to the strategy. 7
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The group reviewed 10 existing strategies to identify recurring themes, noting the engagement/consultation that informed those themes and their relevance to Living Well. These have been themed below: What did we find? Recurring themes from mapping People Community Workforce Leadership People and families need to feel respected and listen to Having space to link with peers to sharing stories and experiences and make connections Increased involvement of people with lived experience in decision making, influencing and designing services People, families and carers need to have access to accessible information that is up to date and accurate Professional jargon can impact on peoples understanding and access Encourage digital health solutions Recognise the impact of loneliness on mental well being Support people to have good mental well being with self-management approaches Early intervention and support for young people People unsure of which service to approach Partnership working across communities and services taking a whole team approach to build from each other’s strengths Better understanding of how communities achieve a sense of connection and well being Further equality of access to services, facilities and community assets Access to things to do locally Promote and support access to sport, leisure and outdoor resources People with drug and alcohol are fully supported within their communities to find their own type of recovery Person-centred care/communication Services need to know what each other does & benefits of joint working Social prescribing and person-centred care Renewed approach to coproduction with the workforce Workforce wellbeing Continue to develop our trauma informed workforce and services Established workforce development group Expand workforce to include 3 sector and maybe privaterd Increased involvement of people with lived experience in decision making, influencing and designing services ‘Professional’ jargon can impact people’s understanding and access Encourage digital health solutions Developing alternative models of care delivery with strong intersectionality Broadening equality of access to community leadership opportunities Celebrate branding, asset-based communication Community Planning Partnership are working with partners and communities to ensure a resilient and active travel network Working with partners to enhance provision of bespoke transport services for those experiencing the greatest inequality in ease of movement Contribute to local and national strategic transport plans to ensure inequalities addressed and acknowledged. 8
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07 Indications are that that 1 in 4 adults in Argyll and Bute are living with one life limiting long term physical or mental health condition. Public Health Scotland estimates that 24% of the population living with a physical health condition. The proportion of people living with more than 1 physical health condition increases with age. Many of these long term conditions are preventable. Drug and alcohol usage has increased. The health and well being of children and young people is key to preventing long term physical and mental conditions. Argyll and Bute is the 2 largest council area in Scotland. with significant challenges due the rurality, areas of deprivation and includes 23 populated islands. nd There are several pockets of deprivation across Argyll & Bute with some areas being amongst the most deprived in Scotland. There is an increasing number of children estimated to be living in relative poverty. There are an increasing number of unpaid carers many of whom will also have or will develop physical and or mental health conditions. We also have the challenges of accessibility to support that would support people to live Well due to our remote and rural geography. Community Place plans Social prescribing Frailty and falls prevention Mental health (suicide prevention) Planet Youth Walking development Community development/planning Third sector capacity building Smoking cessation Alcohol and Drug Partnership Health Behaviour change Child poverty action plan Other considerations Wider determinants of health Equality framework Realistic medicine Increasing older population who will live longer with Long term Conditions Reducing working age population Prevention of long term conditions Increased need for mental health support in adults and young people Reducing budgets but increasing demands National strategies- Scotland's Population Framework & Scotland's Long term Conditions Framework Step 2 Other considerations Links to other work 9All these factors have been considered in the development of this refreshed strategy and will help to influence the development of an Implementation plan building on the actions in the following pages.
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Conclusion We have an opportunity to ensure that The living Well Strategy is a key driver to help us with our prevention agenda across Argyll and Bute Preventing people developing Long Term Conditions and also supporting people to better manage their Long Term Conditions when and if they do develop. This has to take a population based approach across the lifecycle. We have aligned our key overarching actions to the Population Health Framework Drivers. The Scottish Government Long Term Conditions Framework was expected to be published early 2026 but has been delayed. Once it has been published we will look at how we ensure we are delivering against that framework and embed it into a brief update to the strategy. We also have an opportunity to link to the identified existing strategies and work within the HSCP to ensure that prevention and self management remain a priority. Its vital that any work we do fits into local priorities and those of our partners that are key to delivery Delivering on our actions A small short life partnership working group will be formed and tasked with writing a more detailed Implementation plan based on the following overarching actions. This will also allow us to monitor and evaluate our progress. The structures and Governance of our Delivery groups will be reviewed to ensure they are aligned and monitored as appropriate. This work will follow launch of the strategy and may be reviewed periodically to ensure we have the correct structures in place to ensure delivery. 10
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Outcome -People What does this look like/actions Delivery of Living Well Programme across Argyll and Bute, and continue to deliver partner led self- management courses and resources that will be available and accessible to support people to live well in Argyll and Bute, including digital and virtual self-management support options Continue to explore and support peer support and opportunities for connection, sharing stories & experiences as a tool for self-management Work with partners to find opportunities to improve access to support and up to date health and well-being information in accessible formats and mediums Offer Distress Brief Interventions to empower people with self-management approaches that will enable them to better manage distress in the future Increase access to self-management tools and support for people with mental health conditions including Distress Brief Interventions Identify opportunities to ensure the expertise of people living with long term conditions including mental health is recognised and people can influence service design and improvements Explore and identify joined up prevention focused approaches- smoking, alcohol, drugs, healthy weight, physical activity etc. Explore opportunities to expand prevention approaches to young people and children including linkage to planet youth Explore opportunities to influence prevention across the lifecycle Population Health Framework Drivers: Enabling Healthy Living – Develop supportive environments that promote health and wellbeing and reduce health harming activities. 11 People in Argyll and Bute are supported to look after their health and wellbeing and have the tools and support they need to live well Everyone in Argyll and Bute should be able to live a healthy, happy life. People should have the right support, information, and services to help them stay well and take care of themselves. Led by: Living Well -People subgroup
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Outcome - Communities What does this look like/actions Population Health Framework Drivers: Places and Communities – Create healthy and sustainable places by working in and with communities 12 Work with our key partners to strengthen and build capacity within communities to ensure whole system approaches and improved connectivity to support people living in communities. This includes: Increase opportunities for collaborative leadership across our communities, meaning that communities are empowered to work together to address challenges within their local areas. Exploring community access to information, services and support and find opportunities to increase access Identify health and wellbeing opportunities based on the development of place plans and community action plans within local communities Support development of prevention focused communities and partnerships Champion and support engagement with communities, to involve people with lived experience in decision making and influencing and designing services Increase linkage with community based organisation’s in locality areas such as development trusts to support local wellbeing needs Identify opportunities to Link with Alcohol and Drug Partnership to support embedding wellbeing opportunities within the Alcohol and Drug community and recovery Embed well being into community projects/groups for young people and their families Communities - are empowered to lead and build capacity People and groups should feel confident and supported to take the lead in making their communities better. Everyone should have the chance to get involved and make a difference. Led by: Living Well ‘Communities working together’ subgroup
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Outcome -Workforce What does this look like/actions Population Health Framework Drivers: Prevention Focused System – Strengthen collective accountability for population health outcomes and inequalities 13 Support the workforce to take a more preventative approach within their work, by championing a ‘public health workforce’ across sectors Embed related development and training opportunities across all staff groups including, HSCP, Council, partners and 3rd sector Develop a workforce development group to support staff wellbeing and development of skills Explore and progress a social prescribing/prevention workforce framework for Argyll and Bute Develop clear referral/signposting pathways to better promote community resources and support available Engage with staff to understand training needs and co-design solutions Continue to deliver MAP of Health Behaviour Change training sessions across all partners and our staff groups. Deliver suicide prevention training courses across our partners and staff and find opportunities to embed for long term sustainability Map and influence workforce wellbeing workstreams Create learning forum to share learning between practitioners: Explore how to increase knowledge across the workforce in developing their prevention and self-management skills by promoting/signposting to health and wellbeing information sessions and workshops Workforce- staff are able and motivated to support the people they see to live well and are equipped to talk about prevention Staff who work with the public should feel supported, confident, and motivated to deliver person- centred care. They should have the right training and tools to help people live well and stay healthy Led by: Living Well workforce sub-group
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Outcome -Leadership What does this look like/actions Population Health Framework Drivers: Equitable Health and Care – Foster a health and social care system that delivers equity, prevention and early intervention 14 A new brand has been developed and will be utilized across all Living well workstreams and our website and resources. The new refreshed strategy will be launched and an overarching action plans will be developed with key actions for each working group Living well steering group/programme board and relevant work streams to continue to deliver the Living Well action plan and find opportunities to link to other relevant work within the HSCP and our partners A reporting and monitoring structure will be developed for working groups to report on progress against the action plan to the steering group and a process developed for reporting to the programme board. Clear structures and governance to be developed for the Living Well strategy working groups, steering group and programme board recognising that that these structures may change as required. All opportunities to be identified to embed The Population Health Framework into service delivery plans with a key focus on prevention across the life course Identify all opportunities to foster a clear understanding across leadership structures and our partners on the importance and relevance of prevention, including endorsement of Living Well refresh by HSCP Integration Joint Board. Leadership- to support the delivery of the Living Well Strategy and associated projects Living Well will be supported by leadership structures within the HSCP Led by: Living Well Programme Board
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Appendix1-Living Well Strategy 2019-2024 & Mid Strategy Report Appendix 2-Scotland’s Population Health Framework Appendix 3- Argyll & Bute Joint Strategic plan 2022-25 15