With social care services having to respond to rising demand and expectations, alongside reducing budgets, councils are looking for more sustainable solutions to the future delivery of social care. We have all seen the “graph of doom” showing how the cost of social care will overtake all our budgets – if we are going to face the challenge ahead, as well as deliver better, more personalised services, we need to do things differently and we are looking for innovative solutions to get us there.
Improvement East is launching a competition, in partnership with NHS Midlands and East, to find innovative new products and services that will keep older people out of long-term care, where it's not necessary or what that individual actually wants.
Taking inspiration from ‘Dragons' Den’, the popular TV entrepreneurial talent show, successful organisations - this time in health and social care – will get the chance to pitch their products to an influential panel of dragons, including Cllr Colin Noble, Cabinet member, Suffolk County Council, Caroline Tapster, Ex-Chief Executive of Hertfordshire County Council and Karen Livingstone, Director of Strategic Partnership at NHS Midlands and East.
Funding will be made available to pilot the winning pitch within a local integrated health and social care system in the Midlands and East of England, but this is also a great opportunity to showcase innovative new products and services to an influential group of health and local government commissioners.
Successful bids will be those that demonstrate innovation in keeping older people out of longer term care – the product or service may be in use in a limited number of areas but not widely adopted. It will demonstrate cashable efficiencies or increased productivity with evidence of a measurable return on investment. Finally, it must be an innovative product or service rather than a whole-system solution, with no geographical restrictions.
The competition opened on 1 October 2012. The deadline for applications is 1700hrs on 1 November 2012. All submitted applications will be assessed against criteria and those judged to be the most promising will get the opportunity to pitch the ‘dragons’ and an influential audience from local government and health at an event on 3 December 2012.
How to get involved: visit www.improvementeast.gov.uk for further information.