The ALLIANCE House of Care programme review activities from 2020

The programme disseminated learning from their evaluation report and continued support to HOC pilot areas and planning.

Throughout 2020 Scotland’s House of Care programme has continued to support people living with long term conditions be in the driving seat of their care and support. This person centred approach is now practiced across 11 health boards and 135 GP practices in Scotland.

The key aim of the House of Care (HoC) programme is to support the adoption and spread within 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, Recovery Remobilisation Redesign and the national Rehabilitation Framework.

At the beginning of 2020 the programme’s focus was mainstreaming of care and support planning using the House of Care framework and exploring the most effective routes for this. Building on the existing positive relationships with NHS Education Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland extensive dialogue has taken place over the course of the year culminating in programme Core Group hosting a virtual workshop with key stakeholders from these organisations. Though there being an appetite for supporting the Programme, responding to COVID-19 was, understandably, the focus of those in attendance at the time.

COVID-19 saw GP teams having to alter their approach to service delivery with the move to virtual consultation being the the most significant. The House of Care team supported this by developing guidelines for the House of Care Community on care and support planning during COVID-19 pandemic.  An ALLIANCE Live webinar was hosted by the programmes National Lead where Clinical Lead and Tayside GP’s shared their experiences of using video consultation technology (Near Me) in general practice.

Despite the challenges facing GP teams, many saw this as a time to review practice and saw the House of Care approach as the way forward. After adapting training materials so they could be delivered virtually 2020 saw GP teams in new Health Boards (Highland, Western Isles and D&G) trained in care and support planning.

2020 saw the publication of “Fixer to Facilitator”. This report, produced by Matter of Focus is a high level summary of the contribution the House of Care approach to improving the outcomes for people living with long term conditions and the primary acre teams supporting them. Over an 8 month period Matter of Focus worked with the House of Care team and local sites to reflect on the evidence they had gathered over the course of the programme and evaluated the contribution they had made.

The findings in this report are extremely positive. It contains strong evidence that GP practitioners have embraced the House of care approach and are utilising the skills and knowledge gained to support people live as well as they can with their long term condition.

“We describe this work as the best thing ever, we are taking less and giving the person more control. We are using the tools and focusing on peoples strengths and we are noting the changes people are making”. (Health Professional)

“It has certainly made me live more healthily” (Person living with long term condition).

Raising awareness of the programme remains key, 2020 saw the team members involved in delivering presentations at NHS Educations Scotland’s long term conditions conference in February and ICIC 2020 in September as well as various webinar’s throughout the year.

Looking ahead the focus remains very clearly on supporting people living with long term conditions be in the driving seat of their care and support. 2021 will also see a strong emphasis in applying the learning from 2020 and COVID-19, supporting the redesign of NHS services and strengthening the links between Primary Care and the third sector.

Reports of other ALLIANCE programme activities during 2020 can be found in our News section.

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