Partnerships for Older People Project
West Sussex County Council is one of 29 local authorities taking part in a series of nationally evaluated pilot projects. These pilot projects are funded by the Department of Health. They are designed to test different ways to help older people to maintain their health, wellbeing and independence throughout older age. The Government will be watching West Sussex closely to see how we progress – if we can be successful and find ways to help keep older people out of hospital and residential care, there will be lessons to be drawn for all local authorities in the UK.
West Sussex’s pilot project is a partnership between the County Council, Primary Care Trust, Department for Work and Pensions and the voluntary sector.
It centres around two main concepts:
- Community Partnership Teams (CPTs)
- Networks of older peoples’ voluntary groups
The Big Ideas
In Worthing, our Community Partnership Team covers both Adur and Worthing. It has an open referral system meaning that anyone can refer to it – you don’t have to have the endorsement of your GP for example. It aims to provide a service for the great majority of older people who are just under the eligibility criteria to receive a service from statutory health and social care services. They try to provide advice and practical support – ‘that little bit of extra help’ – to keep older people healthy and active in the community.
For CPTs to be successful, they need a vibrant voluntary sector providing a large range of the services and activities that older people want and need to remain independent. In every town, there is a vast amount of this activity taking place, but sometimes it is not that well known about, fragmented or under-funded – and often there are gaps in the services which are critically important to older people.
Here is where the Worthing Neighbourhood Care Alliance comes in. Our part in this pilot project is to better coordinate and develop voluntary services which exist and create them where they don’t. We also want to create an environment where more informal support is available to older people from their neighbours.
Sustainability
West Sussex County Council was awarded £3.4m to develop CPTs and Networks across the county by April 2009.
POPP is being externally evaluated by the University of Brighton and the Department of Health. If we can prove the value of what we’re doing to older people and to service funders, then we hope to sustain the project into the future.
For more information about POPP, please contact:
Geoff State
POPP Project Development Officer
geoff.state@westsussex.gov.uk