Merseyside councils launch pilot to help health and social care providers deliver earlier, faster, more proactive support to their citizens

Three local authorities in Merseyside have launched a data-led early support pilot, designed to proactively identify individuals that may benefit from social care support, before they fall into crisis or long-term care. It has been developed by System C and Graphnet, two of the UK’s fastest growing suppliers of health and social care software.

The pilot, named the Merseyside Early Support project, will initially be run across Knowsley, Liverpool, and Wirral. It uses proven technology to read the rich sets of data available to the region, including data sources from local councils, and population health management system, CIPHA. An algorithm developed by Liquidlogic and the Merseyside authorities is applied by Graphnet to create an early support score, which GPs can use to identify people that could benefit from being referred to social care.

If the individual agrees to a referral, it is automatically sent through to the social care system, where it can be flagged in the Liquidlogic Adults’ System workflow for early assessment and support. There is no additional work for the GP other than recording the outcome.

The solution is configurable, with numerous indicator areas, which allows local authorities to focus resources in areas that have been identified as a high priority. For example, it could highlight an increase in GP or hospital visits over a three-month period, or complex medication plans associated with mobility difficulties or social isolation. It can also track the types of hospital admissions, such as planned versus emergency, and how long and frequent those stays are, to determine the likelihood of that person needing rehabilitation and extra support when they return home.

Examples of support could include reablement or homecare packages and need not require council funding. They could involve community resources and social prescribing or could be focused on care navigation to encourage self-funders to access the support that will be appropriate to them and in doing so avoid costly crisis support at a later stage.

“This sort of early support work is right in the sweet spot of the agenda for Integrated Care Systems. It's using shared intelligence from across the health and social care community to identify people who need care before their situation deteriorates,” explains Liquidlogic Managing Director, David Grigsby. “It can then help to manage and monitor the effectiveness of that care, which is good for the individual and good for the system. It moves us away from reactive management into more proactive early support.”

Liquidlogic is the fastest growing supplier of software for local authority social care and education management services, and Graphnet is the leading provider of shared care records, population health and clinical solutions to the NHS. They are part of the System C & Graphnet Care Alliance, which brings together five of the UK’s most innovative and experienced providers of integrated IT solutions for the health and social care market: System C, Graphnet, and CareFlow Medicines Management.

The Care Alliance is the only UK IT supplier that can provide an end-to-end package to ICSs, covering the entire health and social care community.