Focus on JIP priorities

The Joint Improvement Partnership’s role as a strategic link between local authorities and the NHS has grown, with a number of initiatives in place to improve the quality of care provided by health and social care services, and to reduce costs.

Focus has been on reducing hospital re-admissions, integrating care services, expanding the use of assistive technology, promoting prevention and reablement, and redesigning the workforce.

Recent activities include:

Benchmarking and sharing learning to support effective discharging of patients from hospital and the use of resources in care homes – analysis of Delayed Transfer of Care figures shows that nationally the NHS was responsible for 61% of delays last year and social care accounted for 32%. 

Emphasis is on health and social care services to work together to avoid placement of patients in residential and nursing homes when they are discharged from hospital. 

The JIP is examining a number of suggestions for delaying and reducing the need for care and support, such as changing the culture in hospitals to ‘think home first’ not care homes, and the introduction of a ‘no admission to care homes direct from hospital’ policy. This will require effective intermediate care and rehabilitation or reablement; and sharing good practice in using reablement funds.

A regional event took place on 21st February to work through NHS Situation Reports on delayed hospital discharges and identify good practice. A number of common themes and areas for improvement have been identified.

Integrated Development programme – this started in September 2011. The purpose is to cultivate multidisciplinary teams from health and social care to work in the areas of community intervention, frail elderly people, mental health services for 18 to 24 year olds, reablement for people with dementia, early intervention and screening for dementia sufferers and delayed discharges from hospital. Programme results so far show increasing staff competency, strong partnerships developing between the sectors, and potential for savings in some cases.  

Redesigning the workforce – the partnership, in conjunction with Skills for Care, has undertaken elements of workforce redesign and has targeted three main areas of activity: the end of life pathway, dementia and dementia care, and frail elderly pathway design. A template has been designed to capture and track changes as they arise.