Micro-enterprise care solutions to reduce acute hospital admissions NHS Fife

The NHS Fife team wanted to find new and sustainable ways to support older people to continue living safely and independently in their own homes. The aim was to:

• enable supported self-care and self-management
• build community capacity and resilience
• reduce delays for older people being discharged from acute and community hospital care
• reduce the need for crisis intervention by health and social care services. 

The team worked with partners to develop solutions that harnessed the potential of people in the local community to deliver personalised care and support for older people. This included:

• supporting staff to have personal outcome-based conversations with patients and their families
• working with businesses, care co-operatives and micro-providers to diversify the range of solutions available for patients and ensure the safety, legality and sustainability of small-scale enterprises
• using the Quality Mark process to make sure that care met the requirements of the older person being supported.

Who was involved

The team worked with a large network of stakeholders and care providers in the community.

Impact

• Established a network of 15 micro-providers, with 30 members of staff trained.
• Six older people started receiving support from micro-providers, with positive feedback from the clients. 
• For one client, the micro-provider model led to a cost saving of £1,092 through reduced day hospital use.

Challenges

The project involved a radical change in culture. Staff needed time to feel they had support and permission to do things differently and clients also needed time to adjust to a new way of thinking about their care.