Fast track to integration

NHS West Midlands and ADASS West Midlands are jointly commissioning a fast track development programme for workers in community health, adult social care, children’s service and GP commissioning.

The programme will equip GPs and staff who carry out commissioning or redesign services, with the relevant skills. It also aims to forge close collaborative links between health and social care, necessary for integrated commissioning.

Central to the programme will be developing skills to aid planning and implementation of a QIPP business case. Priorities include:

• rehabilitation and reablement
• preventive services designed to reduce further demand
• redesign of services to help prevent hospital admissions
• transition issues for children with disabilities
• learning disabilities and mental health residential placements. 

Training is intended to cater for multi-disciplinary teams of staff who need to work
collaboratively and make commissioning of integrated care happen. 

Contact: Patricia Barnett, Programme Consultant, Primary Care and PBC, NHS West Midlands, email:  patricia.barnett@westmidlands.nhs.uk;                                                  

Building good places to grow old

Free support is available to local authorities as part of the ageing well programme run by Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID).

Its aim is to help councils prepare for an ageing population and make their area a good place to grow older.

In 2008 there were more people aged over 65 than younger people; one in four people born today will live to 100, and 1.7million more people will need care in twenty years.

Funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, councils participating in the programme will benefit from a diagnosis of needs and the local authorities’ ability to meet them, as well as peer reviews, leadership and officer development, and sharing of good practice.

Contact: Virginia Saynor, Improvement Manager, Ageing Well Programme, West Midlands & North West, Mobile: 0781 0828 432; email: Virginia.saynor@local.gov.uk

Boosting productivity and quality in the NHS

The Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, is designed to support clinicians and NHS organisations improve the quality of care and make efficiency savings.

There are 12 workstreams covering commissioning of care, efficiency, and mechanisms for services to run effectively. 

Workstreams have been identified to ensure the likelihood of improved quality and increase productivity.

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From LINKS to Healthwatch

Government’s HealthWatch Transition Plan is now available, setting out proposals for patients, service users and carers to have a greater say in health and social care.

The plan forms part of government’s wider NHS and care reforms, and builds on current patient involvement arrangements - Local Involvement Networks (LINKs).

New HealthWatch organisations, replacing LINKs, will be set up by 2012, and provide a single point of contact for people seeking information about services. They will also act as consumer champions.

Local authorities will have responsibility for ensuring there is a robust and effective HealthWatch in their area.  

The transition plan sets out what the arrangements should look like when they are working well, and outlines measures to be put in place to support the transition.

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Lasting Legacy for PPF

DH West Midland’s Putting People First (PPF) development programme has ended.

Set up in April 2008, DH specialists helped councils implement a raft of changes needed to transform adult social care, with emphasis on prevention, early intervention, personalisation, and provision of information.

Councils have been left with a legacy of fresh thinking and new approaches to the way services are delivered in the region, giving them a strong basis on which to build care services for the future.

The following summary includes an overview of progress so far; the challenges councils face, and tips for continuing the transformation of adult care:

Carers

• All councils have an online staff training course designed to raise awareness of carers needs and how best to help them
• NHS organisations need to be involved at strategic level in the engagement of carers
• There is need for carers strategies and the implementation of personalised care to be coordinated.

LINKs

• Achievement of LINKs – the  local involvement networks where individuals can air their views and influence health and social care services - is variable
• Healthwatch – the new government initiative to provide people with a single point of contact for seeking advocacy, information, or wanting to express their views, will supercede LINKs.  Rapid implementation is required but the new scheme is not fully understood locally
• Councils have lead LINKs officers who monitor existing contracts. Transition to Healthwatch may need extra or different types of resources.

Dementia

• Take up of benefits for people with dementia is still low and needs to be increased
• Support for the independent and third sector organisations is needed to help them deliver personalised care and reablement services
• Greater use of telecare and touch screen technology is required as part of intervention, prevention and reablement of dementia sufferers
• Precision training of social workers to ensure the right people have appropriate skills for working with people with dementia, is needed

Dignity

• A more concerted effort is required to mobilise 3000 dignity champions in the region to support delivery of:

          -personalisation

          -telecare

          -safeguarding

          -commissioning services to support the dignity programme

          -LINKs/Healthwatch

Valuing People Now

• Investment in employment support leading to paid work for people with a disability, has proved to be financially efficient

• An employment toolkit is available on the Valuing People Now and BASE websites  
• Ensure people with a learning disability are fully represented in Joint Strategic Needs Assessments, with particular attention to areas such as young people in transition, people with complex needs requiring bespoke housing solutions, and people living with older family carers

Safeguarding

• Councils are urged to set up mechanisms for regional coordination of safeguarding practices and procedures
• Continue with close collaboration between staff responsible for personalisation and safeguarding
• Develop risk assessment and risk management policies that incorporate positive risk taking
• Ensure continued collaboration with health authorities
• Make safeguarding the vehicle for continuation of the dignity programme, and implementation of the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty.

JIP projects prove their worth

The initial results from the automated pill dispenser pilot project, shows over £2,000 of savings per person receiving a service; while latest figures for savings from use of the care funding calculator (CFC) exceed £5million.

The calculator is a free Excel spread sheet based tool, used to gauge prices and negotiate the cost of residential and supported living care. 

Use of CFC will be extended to mental health teams in the area, starting with South Staffordshire, North Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire PCTs. Work is also underway to develop and implement Care Funding Calculator tools for Special Educational Needs (SEN) placements and residential placements for children.

The automated pill dispenser has an alarm which is set to remind people when to take their medication.  The pilot has been set up to build a business case for increased use of the dispenser by local authorities and PCTs in the region.

The first 64 users who have completed their pilot period have generated savings in social health and care services of £144,000, the equivalent of £2,257 per person, per year. 

The scope of the pilot will be broadened to include newly formed pathfinder organisations, as well as Memory Centres in the region.

For further information about the Care Funding Calculator Project, contact Mihir Trivedi, mobile: 07977 160 163, email:  mihir@hb21.co.uk

For further information about the Automated Pill Dispenser Project, contact Andy Jackson-   mobile: 07815 073611, email: andy.jackson@ntlworld.com

JIP priorities agreed

The JIP’s priorities for the next two years have been agreed and will focus on promoting quality, performance and efficiency.

The decision was made following the announcement by Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands to keep a revamped partnership going until April 2013.

From now on the JIP will act as the strategic link between local authorities and the NHS.

The old steering group will be replaced by a network of local authority assistant directors, who will be responsible for implementing regional projects. They will also provide development opportunities for practitioners, and peer support. 

Priority areas are:

The NHS’ Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, for assisting clinical staff and NHS organisations to improve the quality of care they provide, while making efficiency savings.

The partnership will work on initiatives to:

• Enhance recovery times of patients who receive non-emergency treatment, by providing appropriate reablement services
• promote prevention and early intervention care services for people with dementia
•  encourage early intervention in mental health
• reduce out of area placements.

Efficiency, specifically:

•  expanding use of the  Care Funding Calculator
• integrating assistive technology into care, with emphasis on learning disability and dementia placements
• optimising reablement services 
• improving systems and processes in work and services
• responding collectively to financial challenges emerging from year two of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

A detailed business plan will be produced over the coming weeks.

The JIP is a programme board for Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands (IEWM) which is the name of the Regional Improvement and Efficiency partnership (RIEP).

Contact: Matt Bowsher, Regional Transformation Lead; telephone: 0121 245 0170, email: mbowsher@westmidlandsiep.gov.uk