A HIGHLY ambitious eight-year plan to help improve healthcare in North Ayrshire has been unveiled.

And the innovative venture aims to ensure that everyone is given the same opportunity to take up healthy lifestyles.

The North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership presented their eight-year Strategic Commissioning Plan, ‘Caring Together’ 2022-2030 to the NHS Ayrshire and Arran board on Monday.

This plan succeeds the three-year plan ‘Let’s Deliver Care Together’, which expired in March 2021, and the one-year Strategic Bridging Plan which ran from April 2021 to March 2022.

The plan sets out the strategic priorities and ambitions that will direct the Integration Joint Board (IJB) and Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) over the lifetime of the plan.

READ MORE: Stevenston dad's touching tattoo gesture for young deaf son

It sets out an aim to improve local health and social care services, reduce health inequalities and achieve a local vision that everyone in North Ayrshire can live a safe, healthy and active life.

North Ayrshire is an area of high inequalities, with many communities considered among the most deprived in Scotland.

The ageing population presents an ongoing challenge for the region, with forecasts predicting the over 65s and over 75s becoming a much larger proportion of the local population.

Over the life of the plan, organisers intend to ensure health and social care services meet the needs of local people. Through their various programmes and projects, people will be able to access the right health and care support for their need at the right time.

They will seek to: enable communities, develop and support the workforce, provide early and effective support, improve mental and physical health and wellbeing, and tackle inequalities.