Social Action responses: Reducing Pressures on Hospitals Fund
September 2015
Sarah HurcombeHead of Health, Care and AgeingSocial Action Team, Cabinet Office
@SarahHurc
78,000 volunteers
13m hours per yearin acute trusts in England
50,000
foster families
3m people
volunteer regularly
Across health & social care Over
Social action in health, care and ageing
● Social action can:● Bring additional resource and knowledge ● Reduce demands on public services● Empower individuals and communities● Provide new people centred models
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Centre for Social Action
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£40m investment
over 2years
Rigorous
evaluation
focus on
215 projectsDeveloped
partnerships
leveraging for projects an
additional investment of
£31mc.
The goal?To
social action initiatives
identify and acceleratedevelopment and spread of
high impact
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● Reducing Pressures on Hospitals and Supporting Older People
● £3.7 million joint fund● 7 Pilot sites - Oct 2014● Additional 30 sites funded
for rapid 12-14 week response - February 2015Royal Voluntary Service
Photograph: Getty Images
Reducing Pressures on Hospitals Fund
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Why?
● Rising demands on A&E during winter● Cohort of vulnerable or socially isolated older people● Scaling up and robustly test 7 existing local approaches
that mobilise volunteers to reduce demands● Build evidence base of what works● Aim to mainstream successful interventions ● 30 additional areas in February 2015 due to waiting
time targets in A&E being missed - need to provide a rapid social action response
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Where are these projects?
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Nature of the interventions
● Teams of staff and volunteers provide practical and emotional support in the community, hospitals and A&E and act as navigators into other local VCSE support
● Support includes:
■ assisted shopping;
■ simple home adaptations;
■ befriending; and
■ transport.
● Support is time limited - aiming to support people to be independent
500 volunteers mobilised so far
Progress of pilots (June 2015)
● Impact report due from Nuffield Trust in January 2016● 4 sites have been able to secure funding from their CCGs to
continue their work and the rest are negotiating● Interest from social investment partners
6,300 people already
supported Additional local match funding of £1m secured
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500 volunteers were mobilised
Results of rapid response (12-14 wk work)
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● New way of working for central government and for voluntary sector organisations
● Positive feedback from local Acutes and CCGs - requests from other areas
● Some areas will be funded by Acute going forward
9,000 people were supported Pragmatic
partnership working
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Lessons learned so far
Local systems:● Secure support from local commissioners and senior leaders early● Front-line support equally important - cultural barriers & referral● Work in partnership with others - VCSE
Volunteers:● Invest in recruiting, training and managing volunteers - you get out what
you put in● Clearly define roles for volunteers - what is the right mix of paid staff and
volunteers? Provide an attractive offer to volunteers.
Service model:● Target the service● Refine the model depending on local need and assets
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Direction of travel: NHS England vision
“...this Forward View sets out how the health service needs to change, arguing for a more engaged relationship with patients, carers and citizens so that we can promote wellbeing and prevent ill-health”
“...we have not fully harnessed the renewable energy represented by patients and communities...”
“...rather than being seen as the ‘nice to haves’...our conviction is that these sort of partnerships and initiatives are in fact precisely the sort of ‘slow burn, high impact’ actions that are now essential...”
What are NHS England doing to take forward social action?
● People and Communities Board set up and tasked with ensuring the above vision is taken forward
● Providing guidance to System Resilience Groups re using social action as part of Winter 2015/16 planning
● NHSE, along with DH and PHE, are reviewing their own VCSE grant funding approach - CO are feeding learning into this review
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More Information?
@SarahHurc
www.gov.uk/government/publications/centre-for-social-action-funding