New £20m a Year Fund to Help Keep People Out of Hospital and in Their Own Home

A new, £20m-a-year Welsh Government fund will support people in their own homes and local communities, reducing pressure on hospitals, Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford today announced.

The Welsh Government will invest a further £17.5m in the Intermediate Care Fund this year to continue projects which have proven to be successful in helping older and vulnerable people remain in their own homes. The fund will support schemes which improve out-of-hospital care and helping people to return home from hospital.

This helps reduce pressure on unscheduled care services and hospital admissions and adds vital new resources to care in the community.

The remaining £2.5m in the Intermediate Care Fund will be used to identify those areas of good practice within the regional partnerships and ensure they are spread across Wales.

The new funding builds on the £35m which was invested in 2014-15 in schemes to enhance integrated working by health and social care services and will continue the focus on improved outcomes for older people and help address the pressures on unscheduled care.

The regional allocations are:

• North Wales - £4.78m
• Mid and West Wales - £3.76m
• Western Bay - £3.46m
• Cwm Taf - £1.94m
• Gwent - £3.6m
• Cardiff and Vale - £2.46m

The new £20m funding is recurrent and is revenue only.

Professor Drakeford said:

"The £20m we are investing in community-based services will help keep people out of hospital and in their own homes. This will help ease pressures on hospital-based services.

"The investments we've already made over the last 12 months have enabled health, housing and social services, along with the third and independent sectors, to work together on some very innovative projects across Wales.

"This is helping to make a real difference to the lives of older people across Wales, and I'm pleased we are able to continue investing in these vital projects."

The £20m for the Intermediate Care Fund is part of the additional £70m investment the Welsh Government is making in the Welsh NHS in 2015-16 to develop local health services, integrating health and social care.

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Notes

• The Welsh Government's Draft Budget for 2014-15 included proposals to establish an Intermediate Care Fund. The fund, which was set up for one year only, included £35m revenue and £15m of capital funding.
• The fund has supported collaborative working between social services, health and housing, along with third and independent sector partners. It was used to support people's independence within their own home, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, inappropriate admission to residential care, as well as preventing delayed discharges from hospital.

Case Studies – detailed stories available on request

Cardiff and Vale

• Feedback from people who have used the Single Point of Access Project indicates that 82% feel this service has enabled them to remain in their own home with increased independence.
• A total of 176 'safety at home' referrals have been completed within an average of 18 days and 416 rapid response adaptation programme referrals have been completed within an average of 10 days. 92% of people who received services provided by Care and Repair felt able to remain in their own homes and live more independently.

Mid and West

• During one month the twilight service (providing 7 days a week support) managed more than a quarter of discharges from hospital. Previously there would not have been provision to discharge on a 7 day a week basis.
• During July to September 2014, 193 people were assessed at the weekend and of these, 72% were discharged home. This equates to approximately £195k savings based on an average cost of £255 per bed, per day.
• The provision of tele-care equipment has resulted in 297 people being supported at home rather than potentially being admitted to hospital.

North Wales

• Nurse Navigators in ED and MAU – of the 362 people seen, 119 admissions were avoided, 169 had their hospital discharge expedited and 16 people were transferred to a community hospital. This equates to a cost avoidance figure of approximately £97k.
• Of the 100 people supported by Intermediate Care Teams, 67 had their hospital discharge expedited and 33 admissions were avoided. This equates to a saving of around 400 bed days, equivalent to a cost avoidance figure of approximately £116k.

Western Bay

• The new Single Point of Access (covering Swansea and Neath Port Talbot) is dealing with around 300 referrals per week.
• More than 1,600 active tele-care users are being supported by a mobile response service. Between April and August there were 1,150 mobile response tele-care alerts, of which 357 (30%) related to falls. Of these around 244 (68%) were supported without the need for an ambulance call out.

Contact:

Martyn Williams
Tel: 029 2082 1823
e-Mail: Martyn.Williams@wales.gsi.gov.uk