Prevention and early intervention
People need to be able to access prevention and early intervention services quickly and at any time in their lives. Services such as assistive technology can be beneficial at different times as can enablement and rehabilitation services. These services can help people to maximise their independence throughout their lives and as people’s needs change, their needs for these services changes as well. It is important to have a comprehensive ongoing strategy for prevention to ensure that organisations in the public sector and in the third sector are joined up in their approaches and maximise the available resources. Much can be done through making every contact count and there are a wide range of partners who are keen to work in this area such as the fire brigade.
One of the weaknesses of the public sector is that it is poor at anticipating demand but can respond effectively at a local level. Too often, organisations wait until there is a crisis until services click into gear but by then it is high cost, acute services. That is why there needs to be a strategic approach to prevention which anticipates potential needs and intervenes early before they become a crisis. For example, people often fall several times before they break a hip. Intervening early in low-cost solutions and preventive actions can prevent the fall which is then very costly and can lead to poor long-term outcomes.
To deliver this element of the strategy, a comprehensive ongoing approach to prevention needs to be developed and implemented. This has commenced with the implementation of the Early Intervention Community Team, which is a multidisciplinary team that supports discharges home and hospital admission avoidance. The creation of the ICS in 2022 is an enabler for developing multi-organisation, preventative approaches further. In particular, the developing Community Care Provider Collaborative, offers an opportunity for the system to come together to take a strategic proactive approach to population health management.
Initial priorities for the Collaborative include rolling-out Integrated Neighbourhood Teams across the city. Similarly, the ICS Fairer Futures Fund is a deliberate attempt to invest in community-led projects to improve health and well-being outcomes through preventative action. We recognise the preventative success we have already achieved through investing in Neighbourhood Network Schemes (NNS) and supporting carers. Now the opportunity is to link up activity across partners in the ICS to maximise our impact.
Page last updated: 3 July 2024
