Deep End Projects
Govan SHIP
The Govan SHIP (Social Health and Integration Partnership) was developed to respond to the needs of patients with complex health and social needs living in the most deprived general practices in Scotland. It took place in Govan Health Centre and involved extended consultations for selected patients, GP protected time, attached and embedded co-workers, including social care and link workers, and time for multi-disciplinary team meetings.
Family Wellbeing Workers
The Family Wellbeing Workers in General Practice project began in November 2024, with funding from the Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund. This new role was piloted in 12 Deep End GP practices in Glasgow, with each Family Wellbeing Worker based across two practices, usually in the same geographic area.
Community Link Workers
Community Link Workers (CLWs) offer non-clinical support, signposting, and health promotion. They work with individuals to improve their health and wellbeing by offering help around issues such as poverty, loneliness and isolation, housing, and abuse.
Since a pilot project in seven Deep End GP practices in Glasgow in 2014, the Links Worker Programme has been rolled out nationally. The programme is now an established social prescribing force, with more than 300 Community Link Workers offering targeted support in practices. This 2025 evaluation report from the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland highlights the impact that the service has had in communities.
Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships (WAHPs)
Following a successful demonstration project, dedicated Welfare Rights Advisors were rolled out nationally. These advisors are attached to practices to support patients who don’t engage with traditional advice services, offering help with financial issues such as debt, benefits, rent arrears, housing, and employability issues.
The advisors can help to alleviate financial stress and reduce pressure on primary care services, allowing GPs to focus on clinical care and treatment. Find out more about the evidence behind WAHPs.
Inclusion Health Action in General Practice
In March 2023, the Scottish Government developed the Inclusion Health Action in General Practice (IHAGP) programme in response to a recommendation from the Short Life Working Group on Health Inequalities in Primary Care to create a new ‘enhanced service’ to provide increased resources for general practices in disadvantaged areas specifically targeted at activities to address health inequalities.
IHAGP provides funding to 66 individual general practices within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which supports work to prevent health outcomes worsening for people with greatest need, and proactively engages those who are ‘missing’ within the system but need support to manage their health and social circumstances.
Three themes for IHAGP activity were established:
- Developing connections with the local community - implementing inclusive patient engagement/community participation approaches to create or enhance existing patient/community participation capacity.
- Enhancing workforce knowledge and skills - practice staff to access education, knowledge resources or training on health inequality and health equity.
- Proactive outreach and extended consultations - enabling proactive outreach and extended consultations with patients who are at high risk of physical or mental ill health due to poverty and inequality.
Inclusion health action in general practice: early evaluation report
Pioneer Scheme
The Deep End GP Pioneer Scheme aimed to support recruitment and retention of both early career and experienced general practitioners working in very deprived areas.
The Pioneer Scheme was part of the Scottish Government’s GP Recruitment and Retention Fund and ran between October 2016 and April 2020. The Lead GP was Dr Petra Sambale and the Academic Co-ordinator was Dr David Blane.
The Pioneer Scheme was inspired by the North Dublin City GP Training Programme and was itself the inspiration for Fairhealth GP Trailblazer Fellowships which now run throughout England. The Pioneer Scheme was cited in the Scottish Government’s report of the Primary Care Health Inequalities Short-Life Working Group published in March 2022. Indeed, one of the foundational recommendations of the report was to "Implement a national programme of multi-disciplinary postgraduate training fellowships in health inequalities".
The Deep End GP Pioneer scheme was shortlisted as a finalist in two categories of the 2019 Herald Society Awards: Herald Society Team of the Year (sponsored by Wheatley Group), and Health and Social Care Integration Award.
