Essex County Council (ECC) has scooped the Care and Integration Award at the MJ Awards for our work with partners on ‘the Connect Programme.’
This innovative programme, delivered with our NHS partners, works to provide the best possible outcomes for older adults across the health and care system.
It came about after ECC commissioned a system diagnostic in 2019, which showed us there was an opportunity to do things better and join up with our partners across the wider system.
The resulting ‘Connect’ programme identified five key areas where outcomes could be improved – avoidance of admissions to hospital, improving hospital discharge outcomes, reducing length of stay in community hospitals, improving the effectiveness of reablement services to reduce ongoing care needs, and supporting more older people to live independently.
The benefits include 2,200 people per year getting better more independent outcomes, 4,650 people each year benefitting from the Urgent Community Response team to avoid hospital admissions and one in five people previously discharged into an out-of-hospital bed, now going home instead. It is estimated the programme is also saving more than £26 million per year across the system.
Nick Presmeg, our Executive Director for Adult Social Care, said: “I would like to say the biggest thank you to every single one of our employees who have been involved in the Connect programme, which has enabled us to deliver a much better, more joined up, health and care system for adults across Essex.
“I’m incredibly proud the judges at the MJ awards recognised the programme as both ‘ambitious’ and ‘well executed’ and, most importantly, that it has delivered clear and lasting benefits for the residents of Essex.”
If you want to know more about the Connect programme, the below video showcases the benefits it has brought to residents across Essex:
The MJ Awards winners were announced at a ceremony in London hosted by journalist and presenter Clive Myrie on Friday (24 June).
To find out more about Adult Social Care at ECC, click here.
