COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS2017
01
THE COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017
APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2017 Guidance for Applicants’
before completing this form.
The application is split over three sections. It is up to you to decide the content and length of each section, but the executive summary and three sectionsmust not exceed three pages in total (excluding the front and back cover pages).
Any questions relating to your application or the submission process should be directed to or 0131 474 9275.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on FRIDAY 16 JUNE 2017.
Submitting Your Application Form
Please use ouronline applicationprocessto submit this application form.
PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:
CATEGORY APPLIED FOR / Local MattersPROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it published) / Co-location of welfare rights advisers in GP surgeries
LEAD ORGANISATION(S) / Dundee City Council
DEPARTMENT/TEAM / Corporate Services, Council Advice Services
PARTICIPANT NAMES OR PARTNER ORGANISATIONS / NHS Tayside
GP surgeries
Brooksbank Advice Centre
CONTACT NAME / Craig Mason
CONTACT DETAILS / / 01382 431193
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE? / YES
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe what this project is about, what it has achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
Please note that we may use this summary for promotional purposes on our website and elsewhere.
Dundee City Council’s Advice Rights Team has successfully co-locatedits welfare rights advisers in 4 local GP practices in Dundee, becoming an integral part of the services provided to patients in their local communities. The team provides a service forpatients’ socio-economic concerns, allowing GPs and other Health Professionals to concentrate more on patients’ clinical needs.Also, by linking in early with people when illness or disability strikes, theadvisers have successfully usedthe access to medical records facilitated by co-location to secure over £1.5 million in extra income sinceJanuary 2015. An Improvement Service report in January 2017 on Social Return onInvestment estimated that every £1 invested in thisservice generates around £39 in social and economic benefits to local communities.
PLANNING and DELIVERING / What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? How have you carried out your project effectively? Are you improving efficiency and effectiveness?
The Welfare Rights Team provides free,confidential advice, information and advocacy services on a widerange of welfare rights and debt related issues. Many of the team’s clients live in the poorest communities and suffer from the greatestinequalities due to poverty and deprivation, which has a majorimpact on their health and life expectancy.
In 2014 the team decided tochallenge the accepted wisdom that help could only be provided toindividuals after things had gone badly wrong and peoples’ income had already been cut or withdrawn. The team approachedvarious GP surgeries within local communities with the aim of helpingpeople at an earlier stage in their journey to secure an incomethat allows them to cope with and manage their disabilities andlong term conditions. The resulting project has been incrediblysuccessful in providing critical earlier intervention for peoplein need, helping to secure incomes for people with disabilities that help improvehealth and wellbeing, reduce stress related illnesses and provide funds for improved diet. Clients can also concentrate better on living their lives, linkingin more easily with family and friends and having moreindependent, less stressful lives in general.
The aim was also to help local GP practices by offering co-located welfare rightsofficers to deal with clients’socio-economic issues so that GPs and Nurses could concentrate more onthe clients’ clinical needs. Patients’ concerns areoften wrapped up alongside money worries and concerns over howthey can afford to meet needs that stem from their medicalconditions. This service helps to meet these patient concerns ina non-stigmatising environment while accessing other local services, via a simple referral from theirown GP or health professional.
The team investigated different models of linking into local Health Servicesfor best effect. They interviewed individuals from differentagencies in Edinburgh and Glasgow and adopted the best elementsof those services for the bespoke Dundee GP co-location model. Once agreed, the team approached GP surgery practice staff andpractice managers in Dundee surgeries. The basic model wasexplained and how it could help their patients, the medical staffand their workloads. The team explained that clients’ consentto the surgery-based advisers accessing their individual medicalrecords was necessary for the model to be properly successful. Thenecessary paperwork was also prepared in order to satisfy concerns eachpractice might have over legal and insurance issues. In terms of barriers the team were worried about contactingHealth Professionals but overcame this by partnering with theLocal Health and Social Care Partnership, Public Healthcolleagues and taking advice from other organisations which had worked closely with GPs.
INNOVATION & LEADING PRACTICE / Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
The project looks to link in with client need at a much earlierstage than is traditionally the case. Often advice delivery isreactive and involves a firefighting approach to client problems.Often clients approach advice agencies at a late stage aftersuffering frustration and disappointment in their efforts tosecure income. By linking into clients with illness anddisability when they first approach their local GP or healthprofessional, the service front loads help and assistance at a point where they are already accessing local services andlinks the patient’s case immediately to their medical records.The service also embeds itself in the practice, becoming one of arange of services that the practice offers. Advisers have accessto the GP appointment system as well as to the patient’s medicalrecords with consent.The service also allows GPs more capacity to manage patients’ clinical needs as the socio-economic concerns of the patients aredealt with by the advisers. This initiative comes at a time when Primary Careis in crisis. The service is free and GPs do not charge theWelfare Rights Team for the use of their rooms. It is a genuinepartnership approach that has also improved NHS and Councilstaff’s understanding of each other’s roles. By working side byside, the services can tackle patients’ medical andsocio-economic needs hand in hand.In addition the service also makes sure that the decisions onpatients’ applications are “right first time”. By usingthe patient’s own medical records, clients’ applications forbenefits include more detailed information and allowdecision makers to make correct, fully informed decisions ontheir case without the need for reviews or appeals.
RESULTS & IMPACT / What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring your success? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve?How do you know this?
The advisers ares currently co-located in 4 GPsurgeries (and 1 additional surgery in conjunction withBrooksbank, a close voluntary sector advice partner) withone worker co-located in each practice for one day a week. Since itsinception in January 2015, the service hasgenerated significant extra money for patients and the local economy. As of28/02/17 the 5 practices had led to £1,556,189 in gains forpatients of the services. Such benefit gains also have a hugelypositive effect on Dundee’s local economy since a higherproportion of benefit income is likely to be spent in the localarea compared with salaried income.
The results gained for clients of the service far exceed theresults gained from traditional advice work. For every £1 spenton putting in the service, £38 has been generated in clientfinancial gains which compares to traditional advice servicereturns of £12-15 per £ spent. This is largely due to the factthat advisers see clients at an earlier stage in theirapplication for benefits and also are granted access to thepatient’s medical records to support patients’claims. As aresult of this joined-up approach and information sharing, the decision makers receiving benefit applications receive much morerelevant information that helps the claim’s success. Clientsare thus spared long drawn out reviews and appeals and all theattendant stigma, stress and frustration that comes with thoseprocesses.
In January 2017 the Improvement Service published aSocial Return on Investment analysis report on theco-location of advice workers in medical practices, with theDundee practices being one of the two areas profiled in the report. This report suggested that every £1 invested generates around £39 insocial and economic benefits in addition to the £38 generateddirectly to the patients themselves.
The work being done is a practical common sense approach totackling inequalities by maximising the incomes of thosewith health concerns and disabilities. It invests resources at anearlier stage and introduces a socio-economic model of supportthat has linked in seamlessly with the work of local GPs and Health Professionals. It also reduces the stigma for patients who are accessingadvice via their GP surgery and is providing easier local access tobenefits advice and support, both key recommendations ofDundee’s Fairness Commission. It is the perfect example of joining up local services to benefit local people.
Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater
NEXT STEPS
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