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Home First
Home First is the Manchester and Trafford Local Care Organisations and system partners’ approach to hospital discharge improvement.
A key part of our role in the LCO is to avoid people going in to hospital. If they do need hospital care for a period of time then we work with the hospitals to get them home or back in the community as soon as possible.
We have several approaches to support this work. This includes establishing Manchester and Trafford centralised discharge control rooms which coordinate all hospital discharges. Health and social care staff work together in the control rooms to expedite discharges and solve problems that may delay a patient’s discharge.
A range of other work has been carried out as part of what we called the Resilient Discharge Programme.
What is the Resilient Discharge Programme (RDP)?
The RDP is a partnership approach to discharge that the LCOs have led alongside the acute hospitals, local authorities and other partners across Manchester and Trafford since 2022.
A key part of the RDP approach was a ‘back to basics’ programme of work under the Home First banner. This has seen community teams work with acute hospital colleagues to look at approaches to discharge. It reinforced strength based approaches as well as practical steps needed on wards to aid discharge planning. The overall aim is to help patients go back home with the lowest level package of care they need so that they can remain independent in the community. This is better for the patient, reduces the long term costs of care and can help reduce delays in hospital.
This approach has seen improvement in length of stay and a reduction in delays on wards that have worked with the team. The programme is now (Summer 2023) being rolled out across other acute wards across Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust hospital sites.
The wider RDP workstreams are now being incorporated into the Manchester and Trafford system approach to Hospital at Home which is being developed in Summer/Autumn 2023.
Home First resources
We produced a number of resources to support the Home First approach which we are happy to share with other systems for use if they are useful.
Home First Resource Guide
A booklet aimed at ward staff as a training tool/aide memoire around key elements of the Home First programme and strengths based approaches to discharge. It gives useful tips and pointers for staff as well as guides to services available in the community, Technology Enabled Care available through the LCO social care team and more.
Home First video
A 10 minute animation aimed at hospital staff to be used in staff induction and training sessions that aims to embed the Home First approach and give some practical examples of how it works.
If you’d like to use or tailor any of these resources for local use, please contact Chris Horner in the LCO communications team at chris.horner1@nhs.net