The money has been awarded by The Innovation Challenge Fund by NHS Charities Together to help children with chronic conditions for up to six months.
Newcastle Hospitals Charity has been awarded £200,000 by The Innovation Challenge Fund by NHS Charities Together to support a partnership with Ways to Wellness.
The money will be used to expand its SPACE Pilot project, a collaboration with the Great North Children’s Hospital that sees social prescribing link workers placed alongside clinicians treating children with chronic conditions.
The move comes after an evaluation by researchers that confirmed the positive impact of the pilot’s work so far in helping families who reported feeling overwhelmed after leaving hospital, with many saying they had a lack of headspace to search for relevant information, as well as feeling mentally exhausted from the effort of applying for support.
It is hoped this will lead to the expansion of the work, to help more families with non-medical support that enables them to focus on what matters to them.
Support for children with neuro disabilities
The facility offered through SPACE Pilot (Social Prescribing And Community rEsources) is designed to complement the work of medical clinicians for up to six months. It includes help to access emotional and practical services, such as from specialist and community providers, assistance with housing improvements, benefits and grant information, school and education arrangements, healthy eating, cooking and other activities that can build a family’s confidence in their ability to manage their situation while their child is unwell.
The facility emerged from research at Newcastle University which looked at the detailed experiences of 18 families who have used the SPACE Pilot service. It found that for every £1 spent delivering the programme, it has created benefits worth £2.75.
“Our study shows the real benefits of supporting children with neuro disabilities and their families through social prescribing – both emotionally and financially,” said Anna Basu, a clinical senior lecturer and honorary consultant paediatric neurologist, who came up with the idea for the project. “Having link workers come into the hospital is a vital part of the scheme, as it makes the service more accessible for some families and allows support to start early.”
The £200,000 investment is part of £923,100 being distributed by NHS Charities Together’s Innovation Challenge Fund into projects that tackle health and healthcare inequalities for children and young people aged up to 18 over the next three years. The overall ambition for the fund is to invest £40 million over the next ten years.
