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Our Additional Roles podcast series continues and this week we focus on Streatham PCN’s innovative approach to the introduction of Care Coordinators into their network. Streatham PCN Clinical Director Emma Rowley-Conwy joins Ben to give us an insight into their journey; from their initial considerations of how to use the funding once they knew it would be made available, the roles they decided to start with, why they felt the development and promotion of existing practice support staff was the way to go when establishing a care coordination team and crucially, the positive impact they are seeing on patients, practices and network staff across the board.

Introduction (0:44)

Streatham PCN setup (0:55)

Streatham’s initial approach to the additional roles scheme (1:10)

Practice involvement in development of the Pharmacy roles (2:18)

Expansion from Pharmacists to Care Coordinators (3:09)

Early considerations of how best to use the Care Coordinators (4:41)

Numbers of Care Coordinators in post right now (5:59)

Development of the Care Coordinator roles across the network (6:07)

How are caseloads and referrals managed in practice? (9:13)

Tackling the problem of variation across practices (10:29)

Recruitment process (11:35)

Building the roles and the confidence of the team and establishing consistency (11:50)

Monitoring the impact (13:03)

How are the practices feeling the benefits? (13:30)

Taking the next step (14:58)

Where the additional roles may fit when the new PCN specs are published (16:24)

Lessons learned (16:46)

Support networks (17:59)

There are still a couple of places up for grabs on each of the courses Ben is jointly running in September:

For clinical directors looking for some ongoing, structured support, the PCN Clinical Director Mastermind Programme is still open for applications. Click here if you’d like to find out more.

Information about the New to General Practice Partnership Training Programme, for those new to partnership or considering going into partnership, can be found here.

If you’d like to discuss any aspect of the courses which are currently on offer further, please contact Ben at ben@ockham.healthcare

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Following on from our recent episode about the difference Health and Wellbeing Coaches can make in supporting patients with a non-medical approach (and continuing with our podcast series following the progression of those working within the additional roles), we introduce you to Newcastle GP Services’ and the north east’s original Health and Wellbeing Coach Frazer Solomon. With a long history of related care within the private sector, Frazer explains why his services are the perfect fit in primary care and how, despite his newness to public health, he has already been able to transform the lives of the patients he treats.

Introduction (0:46)

What is a Health and Wellbeing Coach? (0:57)

Linking with the wider team (1:58)

Shaping the role (2:24)

Patient support groups (3:52)

Expansion of Frazer’s remit (4:47)

Team working (6:05)

Referral pathway (6:45)

PCN construct (7:48)

A disparity in practice referral numbers (8:06)

The importance of promotion and exposure of the role (9:17)

Work base (10:19)

Positive feedback and results (11:02)

What’s the most rewarding part of the job? (12:08)

Caseload numbers and patient management (12:57)

Support networks (13:33)

Establishment of a health and wellbeing team (14:16)

Service development (15:17)

The key components of a Health and Wellbeing person spec. (16:30)

Supporting Health and Wellbeing Coaches to succeed (17:30)

Another reminder that If you are interested in joining the PCN Clinical Director mastermind group programme which Rachel Morris and Ben have setup, or have any questions, please email ben@ockham.healthcare or rachel@shapestoolkit.com – or please check out our dedicated page here.

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Social prescribing is already proving its worth in many practices up and down the country. It is traditionally embedded and under the control of the PCN or health authority but what about when provision of the service is by way of a third-party organisation? Edberts House is a charitable, community-based project in Gateshead who have long been involved in supporting the health and well-being needs of their local populations. It is a testament to their success that they are now responsible for the provision of social prescribing link workers to the health authorities in their area and it is a model that they believe is undoubtedly the most effective in giving the most vulnerable access to fully holistic care. Jackie Jamieson is the Community Linking Project Manager at Edberts House and speaks to Ben about how the third-party model works in practice, the benefits of the model and the impact they are making on the practices they work with – and their patients.

Introductions (0:33)

What is Edberts House? (0:43)

How social prescribing at Edberts House was born (1:24)

The population and PCNs Edberts House cover (2:41)

How the service works in practice (3:19)

Staffing bases (4:24)

Referral process (5:06)

The role of the social prescriber (5:42)

Caseload numbers (7:07)

Relationships with the PCNs (7:46)

Funding and finance structure (9:17)

Partnership recruitment (9:17)

Meeting referral benchmarks (10:31)

Referral numbers (11:40)

How are the team at Edberts House making a difference? (12:59)

Feedback from practices (14:39)

Linking with other additional roles (15:27)

Planning for the future (s16:38)

Are partnership models more likely to succeed? (18:30)

Getting in touch (s19:06)

For more information, the Edberts House website is here

Another reminder that If you are interested in joining the PCN Clinical Director mastermind group programme which Rachel Morris and Ben have setup, or have any questions, please email ben@ockham.healthcare or rachel@shapestoolkit.com – or please check out our dedicated page here.