The ALLIANCE House of Care programme 2021 review

The House of Care programme came to an end, marking the end of an era.

After seven years of support, funding for Scotland’s House of Care programme came to an end. Over the course of this period, the ALLIANCE, who hosted the programme, played a significant role in supporting people living with long term conditions to be in the driving seat of their care and support. By the end of the programme this person centred approach was practiced across 11 health boards and 135 GP practices in Scotland.

The key aim of the House of Care (HoC) programme was to support the adoption and spread of care and support planning using the House of Care approach as normal care for people living with long term conditions (LTCs) across Scotland. This approach supports the implementation of key policies and strategies including Gaun Yersel, Realistic Medicine, Person Centred Care, What matters to You, Recovery Remobilisation Redesign and the National Rehabilitation Framework.

The Programme Steering Group (The ALLIANCE, Year of Care, Scottish Government and the Clinical Lead) felt it appropriate to hold a celebration event to celebrate, reflect and learn from what had been achieved. Scotland’s House of Care programme had been supported by Scottish Government since 2015. It has worked with health boards, patient groups and practices across Scotland to embed and spread care and support planning in place of routine QoF based reviews within primary care. The event was held on 17 August 2021 and brought together many members of Scotland’s  House of Care community who had helped pioneer care and support planning.

The event highlighted the impact the programme had made in putting person centred policy into practice by working with staff within the health care system, practice teams and patients. It particularly reinforced the value of the cultural change it aspired to achieve alongside the system change needed to bring about truly transformational change, including the growing links with the third sector and more than medicine approaches alongside traditional health and social care services.

Despite the programme coming to an end, the legacy remains. The evaluation report, Fixer to Facilitator published in 2020, details the benefits of the House of Care approach to people living with long term conditions and to the healthcare professionals involved in their support. House of Care was cited in The Review of Adult Social Care as an exemplar of person centred care and to this day, the ALLIANCE continues to receive enquiries from general practice teams who see this approach as the enabler of outcome focused care focused on what matters to the people they support.

Over the course of the House of Care programme, the ALLIANCE developed an extremely positive relationship with the Primary Care Directorate within Scottish Government. This paved the way for a new programme of work. The Primary Care Lived Experience programme was launched in September 2021 with the overarching aim of ensuring the voice of lived experience actively informs primary care service redesign.

End of document.

End of page.