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My name is Heather Stowe and I took up post as the Senior Manager Locality Health and Care in January 2025. I have both a Masters and a PhD in social work and have worked in a range of settings both here and internationally over the past 25 years.
What I do...
I have oversight of the locality social work teams, ACIRT and the Residential Review team. These services cover all of East Ayrshire which is a broad remit and includes working closely with all partners across the region to deliver services to our residents. I am the social work lead for adult protection issues.
When I'm not working...
I am an avid reader and enjoy exploring the Ayrshire countryside.
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Hi everyone, my name is Emma Guthrie and I’m the new Adult Protection Lead Officer for East Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership.
I’ve been around for a while, having worked in the mental health partnership as a social worker and mental health officer for over a decade and latterly as a Practice Development Coordinator with a lead for Adult Protection for three years.
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What I do...
My role is a multi-agency strategic role providing support to the East Ayrshire Adult Protection Committee (APC) and its subgroups. Some key responsibilities include: supporting the Independent Convenor of the APC; leading on the APC’s Improvement Plan; supporting learning reviews and any improvement actions; connecting with and supporting multi-agency partners with regards to Adult Support & Protection; quality assurance through an annual multi-agency self-evaluation, and promoting and supporting the prevention of harm across a wide range of organisations and the community.
What I like best about my job...
As a practitioner I was able to influence my own practice. Within Learning and Development I was able to engage with those who attended learning events I delivered. This role allows me to work on a multi-agency basis, engaging with a range of organisations whilst connecting with communities and groups to promote Adult Support and Protection. This affords me the opportunity to influence the prevention of harm on a much wider basis. I hope I’m able to improve practice for organisations and practitioners as well as better outcomes for adults and their families/carers.
When I'm not working...
I’m usually spending time with my family, standing at the side of a football pitch in hail, rain or shine to cheer on my son or watching my daughter at one of her many clubs. We have a dog called Candy, she’s a Weimaraner, who’s very excitable and super cute. Something that is very important to me is my own fitness. Those of you who know me will know I don’t sit still for long and enjoy running and HYROX training.
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Happy hellos...
We welcome Heather Stowe, Senior Manager & ASP Lead Officer, East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership. We look forward to working with her to keep people safe and protected.
We also welcome Emma Guthrie, ASP Lead Officer, Protection & Learning who has been successful in obtaining the ASP Lead Officer role. Congratulations Emma!
We also welcome Craig Riddell, Detective Superintendent, Police Scotland to our Committee. Craig replaces Peter Sharp, Detective Superintendent. We look forward to continuing and strengthening our relations with Police Scotland.
Fond farewells...
We say goodbye to Peter Sharp, Detective Superintendent, Police Scotland from our Committee and wish him well in his new role.
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As part of the learning from previous Learning Reviews, one of the actions was to improve the workforce’s legal literacy and support a better understanding of executive capacity whilst encouraging professional curiosity.
As a result, Adults with Incapacity training which includes executive capacity, has been developed and rolled out during 2024/25. Whilst existing multi-agency self-neglect sessions were available, an additional course has been added - “Care Managing People Who Self-Neglect” - and this includes professional curiosity.
A practice guidance on Professional Curiosity has been developed alongside a 7-minute briefing and a good practice example.
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East Ayrshire RADAR Service has implemented Tier 2 Clinics for individuals who have mild to moderate mental health and/or alcohol difficulties and are engaged in receiving treatment within the service. |
The Clinics offered consist of low intensity psychological support for individuals and are structured, time limited and delivered through evidence-based interventions with a cognitive-based approach.
These interventions have a focus on anxiety management, low mood, self-esteem, sleep difficulties and complex PTSD and are delivered by the Mental Health nursing staff.
Furthermore, East Ayrshire RADAR Service has also successfully piloted Scotland's national video consultation platform "Near Me", to facilitate pre-liberation clinics for individuals who were/are planned to be released from HMP Kilmarnock.
This initiative has significantly reduced the time between release and the individuals collecting their prescription. This has also had a positive impact in terms of individuals having to travel less to clinics upon release, especially if they live in one of the more rural localities in East Ayrshire and are having to rely on public transport.
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Scottish Fire & Rescue have revised their Home Fire Safety Visit (HFSV) system.
This new system involves a custom built digital platform which offers partners a safe and secure way to raise a HFSV referral, and where applicable receive referrals from Scottish Fire & Rescue.
The revised HFSV application is easy to use and provides additional features to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the referral process, allowing partners to track any referral raised and identify its status.
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In the coming weeks, the Ayrshire Policing Division will be identifying 'ASP Champions' in each of the three local authorities, as well as a representative from the Public Protection Unit.
These Champions will serve as 'Single Points of Contact' (SPOCs) for frontline officers seeking advice and guidance on incidents involving Adult Support and Protection (ASP).
The goal is to provide these Champions with advanced training in ASP, through both internal policing courses and multi-agency training across Ayrshire.
Having these dedicated officers will improve the policing response to ASP incidents and encourage the sharing of knowledge amongst frontline officers.
The Community Wellbeing Unit has been rebranded as the Partnership and Prevention Unit.
This new unit will maintain its role in collaborating with partners to discuss and implement action plans and policies. It will also oversee the Youth Volunteers and Missing Persons Coordinator.
The officers who were previously part of the Community Wellbeing Teams have now been redeployed to the Locality Policing Teams. These wellbeing officers will continue to support vulnerable individuals in the community, working alongside partners and third-sector organisations to create action plans for those most at risk. They will also respond to tasks issued by the Concern Hub when individuals enter escalation protocols.
By integrating these officers into the Locality Police Teams, the aim is to strengthen frontline resilience, address community issues and encourage a collaborative approach to training officers in trauma-informed policing.
Their work involves close collaboration with partners across public, private and third sector agencies to prevent criminal behaviour, provide education, and promote positive wellbeing. Additionally, the officers strive to break down barriers between children, young people, vulnerable adults and the police, helping to build trust and enhance safety within the community.
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A resource pack has been created by BUILDING BRIDGES with input from women who have lived experience of involvement in the ‘sex industry’ and support workers. |
It includes a short animation exploring the importance of disclosures, a guidance with information around framing the question and how to respond to women’s disclosures, and a training pack that you can use individually or as a team to improve your skills in this area.
 National ASP Day (20 February 2025) and local ASP Week (17-21 February 2025) focused on Financial Harm and general awareness raising for Adult Support and Protection.
A full programme of events was delivered throughout the multi-agency partners and is available for viewing on the Adult Protection pages of the East Ayrshire Council website.
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We want to thank Lorna McIlreavy, Partnership Engagement Officer in the Health and Social Care Partnership Planning and Performance Team.
Lorna joined the HSCP in January 2022 and has worked tirelessly to ensure the voices and experiences of service users and carers are given the prominence they deserve.
Lorna is a member of the Adult Protection Engagement & Communication Subgroup of the Adult Protection Committee and has worked tirelessly to support Adult Protection Week over the years, ensuring that Adult Support and Protection has a voice in the local conversations.
This year Lorna made sure that there were stalls for workers to access in East Ayrshire Community Hospital, Rothesay House, The Johnnie Walker Bond and North West Kilmarnock Area Centre. Alongside this, Lorna was critical to providing access to groups like The Nest Wellbeing Group where we had excellent conversations around financial harm.
Great achievements
Lorna developed the HSCP’s Participation and Engagement Strategy in 2023. The strategy, and its four priorities, are based on feedback from our service users, communities and workforce.
Engagement work carried out by Lorna has taken many forms from large-scale events to having a cup of tea and chat with local groups – too many to list here! We’ve highlighted a few examples below:
The Local Conversations are an opportunity for the HSCP to showcase the work taking place in communities and give residents and service users the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions for improvements. In 2023, these took the form of locality-based events providing an overview of how services are currently being provided, and the successes and challenges for now and in the future. This in turn generated conversations on how we tackle these together and make suggestions for improvements. Last year, we partnered with Age Scotland, Scottish Care, Alzheimer’s Scotland, East Ayrshire Carers Centre and East Ayrshire Advocacy Service to focus on dementia, allowing people with lived experience, unpaid carers, friends and family to share their experiences of dementia.
Along with a number of HSCPs from across Scotland, we have been an active ‘Pathfinder’ collaborating with the Getting it Right for Everyone (GIRFE) team within the Scottish Government to develop the national GIRFE Framework. Lorna led on a range of engagement and co-production activities as we sought to discover and define the challenges being faced by people who use a wide range of our services.
The IJB Stakeholder Forum is an opportunity for people, users of our services, carers and organisations from the community to come together to share their views on what will be discussed at our board and committee meetings. Lorna has worked hard to recruit members to the Forum and support them to feel empowered to attend and participate in our meetings.
Best Value Service Reviews are carried out across the HSCP on a regular basis. Lorna works with the Review Teams to ensure service users and carers have the opportunity to share their views on the service and be involved in designing how it will look in the future.
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Thank you Lorna.
We think you're a star!
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