The Relationship between the Prevalence of the Urgent and Emergency Care Vanguard Participance and Delayed Transfers of Care in English Local Authorities

This paper examines the relationship between the prevalence of the urgent and emergency care vanguard (UEC) at the local authority level and their delayed transfers of care (DTOC) rates in England. We created a novel measure of exposure to UEC vanguards based on the residence of patients who used UEC partner hospitals, and we group it by the level of exposure (high, medium, low, none). We use this measure to estimate the effect of UEC vanguards on DTOC rates and then on DTOC rates by sector and a range of reasons associated with the delay. The analysis was run at the local authority level (LA) using quarterly data from NHS England for 150 English LAs from the years 2012–2017. We find a statistically significant UEC exposure effect of around 0.3% reduction in total DTOC to a 1% increase of UEC exposure (equivalent to 775 DTOC days per local authority per quarter in high UEC exposure areas), a result robust to various specification checks. Nonacute sector DTOC was found to be more responsive to UEC vanguards in comparison to acute sector DTOC (0.4% and 0.3% reductions, respectively, to every 1% of UEC exposure). DTOC due to social care was particularly responsive to UEC exposure (0.7% reduction to 1% exposure). DTOC reasons associated with the highest impact of UEC exposure were as follows: awaiting a care package at own home, waiting for further NHS nonacute care, and completion of assessment (reductions of 0.5%, 0.3%, and 0.3% to 1% exposure, respectively). All three reasons were originally associated with the largest number of DTOC days. These findings further advocate for UEC vanguards having been successful at alleviating the pressure on hospitals related to DTOC

Skill Mix and Patient Outcomes: A Multi-country Analysis of Heart Disease and Breast Cancer Patients

Policymakers are becoming aware that increasing the size of the healthcare workforce is no longer the most viable way to address the increasing demand for healthcare. Consequently, a focus of recent healthcare workforce reform has been extending existing roles and creating new roles for health professionals. However, little is known of the influence on outcomes from this variation in labour inputs within hospital production functions. Using a unique combination of primary and administrative data, this paper provides evidence of associations between the composition of care delivery teams and patient outcomes. The primary data enabled the construction of a task component-based measure of skill mix. This novel measure of skill mix has the advantage of capturing how workforce planning can restructure the relative input of nurses or physicians into task components while keeping the overall level of staff fixed. The analysis focuses on specific care pathways and individual hospitals, thus controlling for an under-investigated source of heterogeneity. Additionally, stratifying by country (England, Scotland, and Norway) enabled analysis of skill mix within different health systems. We provide evidence that variations in labour inputs within the breast cancer and heart disease care pathways are associated with both positive and adverse outcomes. The results illustrate the scope for substitution of task components within care pathways as a potential method of healthcare reform

The right decisions for children in long-term foster care

The essential role of long-term foster carers in helping to transform the lives of vulnerable children in care is highlighted in a recent study by the UEA’s CRCF funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The analysis of government data showed that 40 per cent of fostered children – more than 20,000 in 2019 – are in long-term foster care. These children are placed with a plan for their foster family to provide a secure, loving family life through childhood to adulthood. Although long-term fostering has existed for many years as an important part of the foster care service, it was only in 2015 that the government issued the first regulations and guidance on long-term foster care. The introduction of these Department for Education regulations and guidance was a welcome move to support long-term foster care with both kinship and non-kinship carers as a positive permanence option. The aim of this study was to investigate their implementation. The new framework required all local authorities to undertake a full assessment of a child’s wishes and future needs and the foster carers’ capacity to meet those needs through to adulthood; to formally agree the match; and to provide a package of support, including maintaining links to the birth family. These processes were already established as good practice in some local authorities, but the aim of the regulations and guidance was to bring all areas up to the same high standard. It was also now expected that local authorities would identify all children in agreed long-term foster care placements and report that information to the DfE in their annual return

The Relationship between the Prevalence of the Urgent and Emergency Care Vanguard Participance and Delayed Transfers of Care in English Local Authorities

This paper examines the relationship between the prevalence of the urgent and emergency care vanguard (UEC) at the local authority level and their delayed transfers of care (DTOC) rates in England. We created a novel measure of exposure to UEC vanguards based on the residence of patients who used UEC partner hospitals, and we group it by the level of exposure (high, medium, low, none). We use this measure to estimate the effect of UEC vanguards on DTOC rates and then on DTOC rates by sector and a range of reasons associated with the delay. The analysis was run at the local authority level (LA) using quarterly data from NHS England for 150 English LAs from the years 2012–2017. We find a statistically significant UEC exposure effect of around 0.3% reduction in total DTOC to a 1% increase of UEC exposure (equivalent to 775 DTOC days per local authority per quarter in high UEC exposure areas), a result robust to various specification checks. Nonacute sector DTOC was found to be more responsive to UEC vanguards in comparison to acute sector DTOC (0.4% and 0.3% reductions, respectively, to every 1% of UEC exposure). DTOC due to social care was particularly responsive to UEC exposure (0.7% reduction to 1% exposure). DTOC reasons associated with the highest impact of UEC exposure were as follows: awaiting a care package at own home, waiting for further NHS nonacute care, and completion of assessment (reductions of 0.5%, 0.3%, and 0.3% to 1% exposure, respectively). All three reasons were originally associated with the largest number of DTOC days. These findings further advocate for UEC vanguards having been successful at alleviating the pressure on hospitals related to DTOC

Skill Mix and Patient Outcomes : A multi-country Analysis of Heart disease and breast cancer patients

Acknowledgments: The authors also wish to thank Jan Abel Olsen and participants at the 2019 winter meeting of the Health Economists’ Study Group for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. We would also like to thank all those who supported and guided this work both within the MUNROS research project team and as members of the external advisory board. The European Commission funded this research programme ‘Healthcare Reform: The iMpact on practice, oUtcomes and cost of New ROles for health profeSsionals (MUNROS), under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 HEALTH-2012-INNOVATION-1) grant agreement number HEALTH-F3-2012- 305467EC. HERU is supported by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates (SGHSC). The views expressed here are those of the Unit and not necessarily those of the CSO.Peer reviewedPostprin

Researching health and social care devolution: Learning for Greater Manchester. Interim findings - Winter 2016

Since October 2015, researchers at the University of Manchester have been examining Health and Social Care Devolution in Greater Manchester. We are working closely with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) – the 37 NHS organisations and councils overseeing devolution and taking charge of the £6bn health and social care budget in Greater Manchester (GM). Our research seeks to understand the devolution process and its development, to describe and analyse changing governance, accountability and organisational forms, and to map and measure changes to services. This brief report sets out our findings from the first year of research. It draws on our analysis of relevant policy documents, observation of meetings (140 hours) and interviews with 20 senior staff members. The research is supported by the Health Foundation and the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) Greater Manchester

NHS Greater Manchester Primary Care Demonstrator Evaluation

No abstract available

Improving care for older people with long-term conditions and social care needs in Salford : the CLASSIC mixed-methods study, including RCT

BackgroundThe Salford Integrated Care Programme (SICP) was a large-scale transformation project to improve care for older people with long-term conditions and social care needs. We report an evaluation of the ability of the SICP to deliver an enhanced experience of care, improved quality of life, reduced costs of care and improved cost-effectiveness.ObjectivesTo explore the process of implementation of the SICP and the impact on patient outcomes and costs.DesignQualitative methods (interviews and observations) to explore implementation, a cohort multiple randomised controlled trial to assess patient outcomes through quasi-experiments and a formal trial, and an analysis of routine data sets and appropriate comparators using non-randomised methodologies.SettingSalford in the north-west of England.ParticipantsOlder people aged ≥ 65 years, carers, and health and social care professionals.InterventionsA large-scale integrated care project with three core mechanisms of integration (community assets, multidisciplinary groups and an ‘integrated contact centre’).Main outcome measuresPatient self-management, care experience and quality of life, and health-care utilisation and costs.Data sourcesProfessional and patient interviews, patient self-report measures, and routine quantitative data on service utilisation.ResultsThe SICP and subsequent developments have been sustained by strong partnerships between organisations. The SICP achieved ‘functional integration’ through the pooling of health and social care budgets, the development of the Alliance Agreement between four organisations and the development of the shared care record. ‘Service-level’ integration was slow and engagement with general practice was a challenge. We saw only minor changes in patient experience measures over the period of the evaluation (both improvements and reductions), with some increase in the use of community assets and care plans. Compared with other sites, the difference in the rates of admissions showed an increase in emergency admissions. Patient experience of health coaching was largely positive, although the effects of health coaching on activation and depression were not statistically significant. Economic analyses suggested that coaching was likely to be cost-effective, generating improvements in quality of life [mean incremental quality-adjusted life-year gain of 0.019, 95% confidence interval (CI) –0.006 to 0.043] at increased cost (mean incremental total cost increase of £150.58, 95% CI –£470.611 to £711.776).LimitationsThe Comprehensive Longitudinal Assessment of Salford Integrated Care study represents a single site evaluation, with consequent limits on external validity. Patient response rates to the cohort survey were ConclusionsThe SICP has been implemented in a way that is consistent with the original vision. However, there has been more rapid success in establishing new integrated structures (such as a formal integrated care organisation), rather than in delivering mechanisms of integration at sufficient scale to have a large impact on patient outcomes.Future workFurther research could focus on each of the mechanisms of integration. The multidisciplinary groups may require improved targeting of patients or disease subgroups to demonstrate effectiveness. Development of a proven model of health coaching that can be implemented at scale is required, especially one that would provide cost savings for commissioners or providers. Similarly, further exploration is required to assess the longer-term benefits of community assets and whether or not health impacts translate to reductions in care use.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN12286422.FundingThis project was funded by the NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme and will be published in full in Health Services and Delivery Research; Vol. 6, No. 31. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information