Health and social care innovation in Derby in line for major national award

Published: 28 August 2019

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust and Derby City Council’s Home First team are finalists in the prestigious HSJ awards for a partnership project which is helping to keep people out of hospital with a new approach to care.

The partnership project, known as the “Derby City Road to Integration”, has been shortlisted for the health and local government partnership award at the HSJ Awards 2019, recognising their outstanding contribution to healthcare.

The project sees community NHS and local authority social care staff work in close partnership to support patients in Derby identified as needing a range of therapy, home assessments and adaptations to maintain their independence and mobility at home or help them return home from hospital. Most of the patients cared for in this way are elderly.

The partnership project team also works in close partnership with Royal Derby Hospital to identify inpatients who could benefit from their approach to care, by providing a “step down” bed (known as a pathway 2 bed) in the integrated assessment hub at Perth House, Chaddesden. Here patients can receive social care assessment and intensive support from physiotherapists and occupational therapists if needed to enable them to return safely home.

The HSJ awards judging panel, made up of a diverse range of influential figures within the healthcare community, shortlisted Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust and the Derby City Council’s Home First Team despite tough competition from hundreds of excellent applicants.

In announcing the finalists, the HSJ judges said: “The Derby City Road to Integration project has been selected based on its ambition, visionary spirit and the demonstrably positive impact that this has had on patient experiences within the health and social care sector.”

The project, led by Julie Knight, head of Home First for Derby City Council and Jackie Rawlings, general manager for Derby City with Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, incorporates the integrated discharge hub at the Royal Derby Hospital. This includes all the Home First service areas – Home First, Hospital to Home and occupational therapy teams, as well as the United Hospitals of Derby and Burton integrated discharge team and the Derbyshire Community Health Services clinical navigation team within Derby.

This was a joint submission to highlight the work the teams have undertaken over the past three years to provide an integrated service and the development of clear pathways out of hospital, in particular the integrated pathway 2 service at Perth House.

Councillor Roy Webb, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Housing at Derby City Council said:

We are delighted to have been shortlisted for this award and have the collaborative efforts of staff members across Derby City Council and our community-based NHS colleagues in the city highlighted. The project showcases their dedication to an integrated service and improved outcomes for patients and to have achieved this nomination is a fantastic recognition of this.

Jackie Rawlings, general manager for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust within the Derby city area, said:

I am so pleased to have the hard work of the team recognised in this way. By working collaboratively across organisational boundaries, in line with the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, we are able to provide a better service tailored to the needs of our patients and service users.

One Derby resident in her eighties who recently spent two weeks in Perth House received intensive physiotherapy each day to improve her mobility. She had previously spent nearly two weeks in hospital after a fall while out shopping. Now safely back home where she wanted to be, she said:

The physiotherapy was wonderful. I was having the therapy three times a day and it got me going. Now I’m back home and I’m slow but I can cope, and that’s the main thing.

HSJ editor Alistair Mclellan, added:

We would like to congratulate Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust and Derby City’s Home First Team on being nominated in the health and local government partnership category ahead of this year’s 2019 HSJ awards. We are looking forward to welcoming them to the ceremony in November, to join us in recognising the very best achievements and innovations in the healthcare sector. The entrants this year have been of incredible calibre, and each of the finalists in this category has been chosen based on their outstanding commitment to excellence in healthcare.

Winners will be selected ahead of the 2019 HSJ awards ceremony, which is due to be held at the Battersea Evolution Centre, London on 6 November 2019.

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