![Attendees at the awards ceremony at University Hospital Ayr](https://www.livingwellea.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Dale-story.png)
EAHSCP staff complete NHS skills course
Congratulations are in order for three EAHSCP staff, who recently completed an NHS Ayrshire and Arran skills improvement course.
Stephanie Preston (Planning and Performance Programme Officer), Dianne Ferguson (ADP Development Officer) and Kirsty Fraser (Child Protection Lead Officer) successfully completed the Ayrshire and Arran Improvement Foundation Skills course and were presented with certificates at an awards ceremony at University Hospital Ayr on Tuesday 7 November.
Scottish Government National Clinical Director, Jason Leitch, attended the ceremony via video link to extend his congratulations and impart a few words of wisdom for the certificate recipients.
Dianne Ferguson provided some comments about the day:
“Jason Leitch said at the end of today’s ceremony that all we need are three things to succeed – the tools, the pals and the courage – so watch out East Ayrshire as we are now certified and you are our pals.”
She then went on to describe the course as a “great opportunity” and a valuable part of her “continuous professional development journey”.
![](https://www.livingwellea.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Dale-story-1024x645.png)
Stephanie, Dianne and Kirsty each have improvement projects within the partnership, which they have shown tireless commitment to over the duration of the course.
Dianne’s project will focus on promoting the Scottish Government’s National Mission Framework in East Ayrshire, which aims to reduce drug and alcohol-related harms.
Meanwhile, Kirsty’s project will work to improve the participation of children and young people at their initial Child Protection Planning meetings. This work is supported by the Child Protection Committee via their Performance and Quality Assurance subgroup and links with current child protection improvement work. She commented:
“The project is still underway and will hopefully evolve and merge with other pieces of work across the partnership in regards to improved participation of children and young people in decision-making and service improvement and development.”
Finally, Stephanie’s project will work towards improving the quality and consistency of our partnership participation and engagement resources. Areas her project will tackle include improving our communication with stakeholders, more effectively co-ordinating the event planning process and reducing the time it takes for staff to plan partnership events.
We wish Stephanie, Dianne and Kirsty the very best of luck with their projects and congratulate them again on reaching this milestone in their professional development journeys. Well done!