Footcare Fife is a volunteer-supported toenail-cutting service for people who struggle to cut their own toenails. At £10 an appointment it is an affordable service, run by Fife Voluntary Action, a local charity, and delivered by trained volunteers. The money goes towards the cost of equipment, volunteer expenses and so on - we do not make a profit on it.
We cannot offer home visits, so you need to be able to come to one of our clinics. The clinics listed below come straight from our diary, so what you see is what is running.
"Many thanks for an excellent service" - just one of the messages we have had from very happy and satisfied clients.
We are not able to offer home visits: to use Footcare Fife you need to be able to come to one of our
clinics. Dates and times vary with the space each venue can give us and the availability of our
volunteers. These are the clinics with dates in the diary at the moment.
If a place is not on this list, we have no clinic there at the moment.
Why is footcare important?
Our feet are important - on average, most people take 8,000 to 10,000 steps (around 5 miles) a day. In a lifetime, the average person walks more than 100,000 miles - more than four times the circumference of the globe.
Poor footcare can lead to various health complications, prevent people from getting out and about easily, or simply moving around their own home. It can severely affect their wider health and wellbeing. Basic maintenance, like cutting toenails, is therefore essential to a healthy life for everyone, and can help people avoid the need for medical treatment further down the line.
Good personal footcare clearly contributes to helping older people to remain active, well and independent for as long as possible. Of particular relevance is the role that personal footcare plays in the prevention of falls and fractures and the significant, life-changing problems these can go on to cause. Good foot health really matters to older people: it can reduce pain and improve confidence, mobility, quality of life and independence, with the potential to prevent more serious problems.
Is this an NHS Fife service?
No. NHS Fife does not provide a service like this in Fife. In the past some NHS podiatry departments provided personal footcare as part of their core services; to deliver safe and effective podiatry that prioritises people with a clinical need for treatment, many NHS boards across Scotland have reviewed and redesigned their services. An unintended consequence in some areas is a gap in personal footcare, such as toenail cutting, for people who do not have a clinical need for podiatry.
Fife Voluntary Action worked closely with NHS Fife and Fife's Health and Social Care Partnership to develop this service. The training our volunteers undertake and the equipment they use are fully endorsed by NHS Fife, and the service is professional and fully insured.
How was this service developed?
Developed in response to the Scottish Government's guidance on providing accessible personal footcare to people in Scotland, the project is administered by Fife Voluntary Action with support from Fife's Health and Social Care Partnership, part of whose role is providing space in NHS and council buildings where sessions can take place. Personal footcare does not require the skills of a podiatrist, and we make sure that the volunteers who deliver it have the appropriate skills. NHS Fife Podiatry Services is a key partner in the project and has been involved since the beginning, back in 2014.
Planning and delivering services relies on effective partnership working between health, social care, the third and independent sectors. Fife's Health and Social Care Partnership supports self-care by funding Fife Voluntary Action to develop a personal footcare service through the Integrated Care Fund.
Following a successful pilot in Kirkcaldy at Whyteman's Brae Hospital in early 2014, regular sessions are now running across Fife. Since personal footcare is an individual's own responsibility - in the same category as a trip to the hairdresser - the project developed with the idea that, besides helping people look after their feet, the sessions would offer a friendly, relaxed and social experience for people who may struggle to get out and about. As well as the footcare they need, the half-hour session gives people time for a chat.
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