Transforming community care

Alison While

The increasing older population should be a cause for celebration as it demonstrates the success of public health and medical advances. Yet, there is a realisation that things cannot go on as before if the demand for support in the home is to be met. The Government has announced an additional £650 million for adult social care in 2019/20 with plans to inject an extra £3.5 billion a year into primary and community healthcare by 2023/24. The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) (2018a) argues that the £650 million, together with any existing money, should be invested if there is evidence of effectiveness in preventing or reducing the need for care or improved care outcomes, rather than unquestioned continued funding of existing services.

SCIE (2017) demonstrated how Birmingham City Council used the whole systems approach to foster innovations helping older people and people with disabilities to build a ‘good life’ where they lived, but this promising approach is yet to be implemented widely. The Shared Lives and Age UK Living Well services are widely recognised, to which Birmingham City Council has added local area coordination, social prescribing, extra-care housing as well as extra support for those leaving hospital etc., to yield a £7.5million annual saving on adult care. Social care discharge coordinators were introduced, Royal Voluntary Service personnel identified older people who might need support on discharge, and British Red Cross Support at Home volunteers helped people with long-term conditions regain confidence and independence after hospital discharge. SCIE (2018b) uses case studies to illustrate scaling up of these innovative models.