Transformation Partners in Health and Care > Looking after myself
Enable Londoners to do more to look after themselves

Looking after myself

Enable Londoners to do more to look after themselves

Londoners want more control over their health but often are not supported to manage their own health.
We aim to increase the proportion of people who feel supported to manage their long-term condition to the top quartile nationally.

Learning from Londoners and from best practice
HLP is examining the evidence to identify which activities have the greatest impact in personalising care and support. Health and care commissioners and providers are working with service users and carers to learn from social care, NHS pilots and other industries. These findings will drive further efforts to tailor services and support Londoners to manage their own health.

Widening access to personal health budgets
Most London CCGs are providing personal health budgets and are working to increase uptake among Londoners with mental ill-health and those with complex needs. HLP is supporting CCGs to broaden access to personal health budgets for population groups with other long-term conditions.
Clinical commissioning groups are encouraging providers to support Londoners in having greater flexibility and choice of community and mental health services. This may include freeing up a proportion of their fixed block contracts to be used more flexibly or using Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payments to support personalised care for specific population groups.

Airdrina was one of the first Lambeth recipients of an integrated personal budget. She used to live in residential care, entirely dependent on services costing £62,000 each year. Now, living in her own flat and supported at the times of her choice by the people she’s chosen, Airdrina is starting to live the life she wants rather than the life that services said she could have, freeing up £45,000.

Developing Citizen Accounts
HLP has collated best practice across the NHS and social care in administering and managing personal health budgets including setting outcomes, brokerage, payment systems and access to provider markets. HLP is now using this information to prototype an online citizen account with a ‘single sign on’ process so that Londoners can book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, view and contribute to their medical record and care plans, spend their personal budget and upload relevant information for use in a crisis.

Testing new payment models to support patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)
Many CCGs have rolled out PROMs for segments of their population. Commissioners are now trialling and testing new payment models linked to these PROMs. This will enable payments to London providers to relate more closely to what matters to patients in London.

Empowering Londoners to be partners in their health
As part of the new primary care framework, all patients who would benefit from more coordinated care will be invited to co-develop a holistic care plan. Primary care practices will identify local services that can support Londoners to stay healthy and GPs will work to understand an individual’s health goals.

Mobilising community assets
HLP is working with boroughs, the voluntary sector, industry partners, CCGs with experience in social prescribing and other partners to work out how to mobilise local people and support so that Londoners have access to rich and varied self-help opportunities within their local community. This will include addressing legal and governance issues as well as developing options for sustainability and outcome measurement.

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