Cabinet Office Minister and local MP visit Thrive.NEL

This week, BOP was enormously proud to host Georgia Gould MP, Cabinet Office minister, and Melanie Onn, MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes at Thrive.NEL, our Northeast Lincolnshire social prescribing programme which has seen fantastic results in evidencing better value for healthcare spend.

What is Thrive.NEL and what is social prescribing?

Thrive.NEL, delivered in partnership with the brilliant Centre4, is an asset-based community health ‘social prescribing’ programme. Social prescribing is a method of treating individuals that have health conditions by connecting them with activities, groups and services in their local community, which can improve their health and wellbeing.

Originally created by the visionary Lisa Hilder, Thrive supports people living with long term health conditions to create sustainable lifestyle changes and improved self-care habits. Its asset-based model focuses on addressing social and environmental factors in individuals’ lives, to support them on their journey.

During their visit, Georgia and Melanie heard from Thrive participants and Link Workers about their experiences on the programme and attended local Nunny’s Farm for a taste of the community spirit which participants benefit so much from.

Real people, tangible positive outcomes

Thrive has seen over 2,400 people start on the programme since its launch seven years ago. 95% of those engaged for 24 months have reported improved wellbeing.

What’s more, the tailored support provided by Thrive has resulted in over 35% lower hospital costs than a comparison group, and an 11% reduction in GP usage for a sample of participants – something we are able to evidence thanks to our ground-breaking data sharing agreement with the local NHS.

These incredible results are down to our personalised, flexible support offer, which goes well beyond the ‘signposting’ of the current NHS Social Prescribing Service; in the latter, caseloads are simply too high to truly walk alongside people and provide the relational, tailored support they need.

Leveraging the outcomes-based model

BOP’s Kit MacInnes-Manby, Michelle Donington, Grace Duffy and Mila Lukic also chatted to Georgia and Melanie about Thrive’s radically different, yet entirely common sense, Social Outcomes Partnership delivery model:

Instead of the standard public services commissioning model (where pre-specified activities are paid for regardless of whether they turn out to be effective or not), the outcomes approach means commissioners such as Local Authorities and the NHS only pay when meaningful, genuine person-centred outcomes are achieved and evidenced.

The change of focus from inputs to outcomes enables collaboration, unlocks flexibility and innovation throughout delivery, improves data and accountability, and achieves much greater value for the public purse.

Carried out at scale, this approach could radically improve health outcomes and lives, bring down health service waiting lists, and increase productivity. It’s our hope that examples like Thrive will contribute to the UK Government’s public service reform agenda and help towards creating an NHS fit for the future.

For more information about Thrive, visit:

https://bridgesoutcomespartnerships.org/work/adults/health-wellbeing-independence/thrive/

For more information about how it’s contributing to cost-savings and better outcomes, visit:  https://www.newlocal.org.uk/articles/how-community-power-can-save-money-and-reduce-demand-on-public-services/

And for more information on our work and the power of pivoting from controlling inputs to focussing on outcomes, check out our learning document, People-powered Partnerships: https://bridgesoutcomespartnerships.org/our-learnings/collaborative-design/#people-powered-partnerships