Agenda item

Presentation by the Operations Manager, Living Well Service

The Living Well Operations Manager gave a PowerPoint presentation updating Members on the Darlington Primary Care Network (PCN) Living Well Service.

The presentation provided details of the PCN which covered all 11 practices in Darlington and approximately 110,920 patients; worked closely with Primary Healthcare Darlington; and provided an opportunity to approach healthcare from a population level, working with partners to meet identified needs.

Reference was made to the health inequalities experienced by certain groups and the need for a system approach to target services to those with the poorest outcomes;  that data from multiple sources and the use of PCN data dashboards, along with local knowledge, would be used to identify a focus for the work of the new service.

It was reported that the PCN had invested over £300K in service delivery and development; the delivery of the Living Well Service had been subcontracted to PHD; and over £1M of funding from the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme had funded a range of staff including health coaches, social prescribing link workers and trainee nursing associates.  Other plans included a greater focus on data and evaluation, cross organisational working and community focus and investment.

Reference was made to the 10 public health priorities identified by the Tees Valley CCG; the suggested three areas of focus for Darlington was those not known to Primary Care, frequent fliers and older people/ loneliness; and progress to date included development of a PCN virtual link worker service, recruitment of 9 social prescribers, co-location of a social prescriber at Age UK and agreement for a range of social prescribing drop-in service and bookable sessions.

Particular reference was made to the importance of partnership working and the need to understand the impact and performance of the service to ensure the service would be sustainable in the long term.

RESOLVED – That the thanks of the Board be conveyed to the Living Well Operations Manager, for her informative presentation.

REASON – To convey the views of the Board.