IAN Welsh’s first link with the Labour Party as a teenager was not just politically engaging but rather lucrative. His older brother sub-contracted the tote to his sibling, who went out every Friday knocking doors in Prestwick and collecting subs, for a payment.

“I was involved whether I liked it or not, it was all party politics. I have been in the Labour Party since I was 16 officially,” he remembers.

If our past defines us, you could say the 61-year-old chief executive of the Health and Social Care Alliance has politics in his blood, giving meaning to much of his career. A local councillor in his home town of Prestwick, he moved up the ranks to become leader of Kyle and Carrick Council and South Ayrshire Council and was voted into the Scottish Parliament in the first election in 1999. He was also the first MSP to step down, after 230 days, before going on to make a contribution by a different but possibly even more successful route.

October 27 sees the Health and Social Care Academy’s inaugural lecture, delivered by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. In partnership with the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and The Herald, the event is part of the work of the Alliance, creating a space for debate about the process of health and social care integration.

“The First Minister has been a big supporter of the Alliance since she was health secretary and is herself a Prestwick girl. She will have some trenchant things to say. We are delighted she is going to be using that occasion to set out agenda items for the nation,” he says.

He has served on the board of a number of organisations with causes close to his heart, and picked up an OBE on the way for his commitment and dedication. If this Prestwick man is passionate about the area where he grew up and still lives, he is possibly even more of a fervent fan of Kilmarnock FC.

“In the latter part of my school career I was a part-time professional footballer for the greatest team in Scotland. Having been a supporter. I had the joy and privilege of being a footballer with the club I loved. I was devastated when I was released,” he says.

Kilmarnock’s loss was the teaching world’s gain and after studying for a joint honours degree in English literature and history at the University of Glasgow, he went to to carve out a career in education. The world of local politics was taking over; by the 1980s he was involved with Keep Prestwick Flying, a group campaigning with Scottish MPs to preserve the airport’s monopoly on trans-Atlantic flights, and fighting to keep Craigie College in Ayr open.

Married to Elizabeth McAndrew with two young sons, Sean and Stuart, it was also a difficult time at home as the young family came to terms with Stuart’s cerebral palsy diagnosis.

“That was a time of sorting out where his future would be, it was a very challenging time emotionally. The burden of that, it is almost embarrassing to say, was borne largely by my wife, who took all the strain and stress of having to deal with that when I was enjoying myself in other things I loved,” he says.

That included a new role at Kilmarnock FC as chief executive, after a few years as a non-executive director at Prestwick Airport. “It was a hard decision in some ways but the easiest decision of my life in other ways,” he says.

He led the club through a period of business and footballing success, involved in community programmes, winning the Scottish Cup and travelling to Europe. He remembers a visit to Sarajevo to play ?eljezni?ar when war had stopped in the Balkans but the tensions were still palpable. Parts of the city were in ruins and he will never forget the journey to the national stadium, which had been used as a prison during the war years. “The road to the stadium had mass graveyards on either side. It was a sobering time for us,” he adds.

After losing out to Des Browne in the Westminster elections of 1997, he says it was expected he would go into the Scottish Parliamentary elections two years later.

“With reflection it might not have been the best opportunity. When I got there it was a transitional point: I had been engaged with local politics for 15 years at a significant level of decision-making. I went to sitting in a subordinate legislation sub-committee. I found it challenging personally to find out where I was,” he concedes.

“It coincided with a period where we had to reflect on my younger son’s condition. When it became clear I wasn’t happy, we had a family conference. There were two options: I could have persevered and hung in for the term or leave. My oldest son, who at that time was on the cusp of manhood and due to go to university, said he had felt like an orphan for 10 years.”

The decision was taken to step down and he is adamant it was the right thing to do. “It has not stopped me from being political in all of my work since,” he adds.

A thread runs through the organisations he has been involved with, from chairman of the UWS court to chairman of Ayr United Football Academy and sitting on the board of the Scottish Government’s new NHS Scotland Health and Social Care plan. There was no masterplan though he does subscribe to the Confucian view about leaping and the net will appear.

If he has a contribution to make he will offer his services. “Part of the burden when you are as driven as I am is that I don’t think you are rational about what you do. I’m keen to help, I have always been that way, thankfully I hope my kids are not driven to the same extent because it’s a bit of an affliction,” he says candidly.

“There is nothing I have been involved in I have not felt passionately about, whether it is a larger entity like the UWS or Ayr United Football Academy, it is the camaraderie, the sense of collective endeavour I like to be involved in.”

He admits to feeling embarrassed and proud to receive an OBE for his services to the community in Ayrshire. A Labour Party member, though not a republican, he says he did not feel obliged to decline it and adds it would be churlish to say he felt anything other than gratitude that his work was acknowledged.

He moved to the Health and Social Care Alliance after 10 years with international charity the Rehab Group. It was a perfect fit for a number of reasons.

“My wife had a cerebral haemorrhage 25 years ago, so I was interested in the impact of long-term illness or conditions. My son was disabled, and my wife and I were unpaid carers. Although I have been involved in local authority work through being an elected member, the health side was a contingent interest. It was a new world for me. The workings of the health system I was unsighted on and that has been an eye opener,” he says.

“The health service is the single largest spend in the Scottish budget, it has such a mammoth impact on local economies through its workforce. Even in the current Scottish context it is the nearest thing we have, for me, to the legacy of post-war Britain. When people put up that flag in 1947, the NHS in public ownership, it still represents all that is good about public service and personal outcomes for individuals. It is a complicated beast.”

The national third sector intermediary for a range of health and social care organisations, The Alliance has more than 14,00 members including national support providers as well as local volunteer-led groups and people who are disabled or providing unpaid care. It plays a key role as NHS and social care funds in Scotland are integrated, a process fundamental to how the Scottish Government might deal with the growing elderly population.

“The challenge will be the political will to address some of the blockages and how you transfer resource from where it currently resides, largely in the hospital world, back into community-based settings. The proof of the pudding will be in the action planning the next Government puts in place to address those issues,” he says.

With a commitment and passion that never wanes, what does he do for relaxation?

He immediately cites his role at UWS which ends in January. A powerful politically charged atmosphere has proved to be another period in his life he will miss.

When pushed he says he reads, walks with his wife and still goes to Kilmarnock home games, which he described as “a mixture of stress, exultation and despair in equal measure”. Sounds like a winning formula.

Health and Social Care Academy inaugural lecture with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, October 27.