Building wellbeing and resilience - Living Well

Promising models of care – case studies

The Living Well scheme aims to improve prevention and resilience amongst older people with multiple long-term conditions by providing low-level support to day-to-day living and utilising asset-based resources to promote empowerment and wellbeing.

The process begins with a conversation between the person and the voluntary sector coordinator, who helps them to identify their goals and coordinate a management plan. Trained volunteers provide support to build social networks around the individual to help them become better connected to their community, be more physically and socially active and subsequently have better health outcomes. Practical support, navigation and coordination are provided in order to boost self-confidence and self-reliance, leading to reduced adult social care spend and primary/community health benefits.

Current users and outcomes

The scheme focuses on older people, with a minimum of two long-term conditions.

The following outcomes are based on the first 325 older people on Cornwall’s Programme:

• 27 per cent reduction in A&E attendances
• 37 per cent reduction in non-elective admissions
• 20 per cent average improvement in wellbeing
• 20 per cent of people supported to become a volunteer
• 8 per cent reduction in social care costs.

In 2015, the Living Well Programme was extended to eight new sites across the country, each aiming to support a further 500 to 1,000 older people a year.

Estimated current financial benefits per annum

Based on Cornwall’s data:

• £1,181 gross benefits from a reduction in social care costs, for every person on the scheme
• £1,598 in gross benefits per person from reduced A&E attendances, and reduced non-elective admissions.

The costs are estimated to be £400 per person.

Estimated costs of Living Well programme in Cornwall are £130,000 per year.

Potential benefits to Birmingham

If the Living Well programme was introduced in Birmingham and it supported 1,000 older people per year, and the same benefits could be achieved as in the Cornwall site (reduction in A&E attendances, improvements in wellbeing etc.), the following financial benefits could be possible:

• £1.2m in savings per year to the local authority
• £1.6m in savings per year to the health economy
• £1m per year in wider social benefits

With estimated costs of £400,000 per year.

Implementation issues

Implementing Living Well locally requires the recruitment and training of coordinators and volunteers. In order to scale the service up, it is estimated that a team of 67 volunteers and 12 coordinators is required to provide support for up to 800 people.

Once set up, the maximum cost of this level of Living Well support is likely to be around £400 per person, per year.

Putting funding in place, identifying volunteers and co-ordinators locally, and managing the recruitment and training processes are the biggest challenges to operating at scale.