Innovative Collaborative Practice Programme – Invitation to express interest

Applications by Friday, 8th October 12:00pm

We would like to invite GP practices to express interest in a Collaborative Practice Programme that we are launching in the South East in October. The aim of this programme is to work in place to:

1. • Improve patient care, particularly for people living with long term conditions or those who visit their GP frequently with social, non-clinical problems;
   • Develop a new skill set for staff in general practices, equipping them to work collaboratively with local people as partners;
   • Improve morale and retention of staff at a time when primary care is facing a staffing crisis
   • Consider the future sustainability of general practice by meeting non-clinical needs differently, giving clinicians more time to do what they are trained to do;
   • Provide wraparound support to social prescribing link workers and other roles in the practice/PCN and strengthen closer working with local voluntary and community groups.

We also aim to enable sharing learning and best practice across the South East practices taking part. For more information, click here.

To find out more about this innovative Collaborative Practice Programme, including the recording from our introduction and QA session, please email us at [email protected]

We are asking for expressions of interest by 12:00pm on Friday, 8th October 2021 via the online portal here.

If you have further questions please contact [email protected] or browse some of the additional information about Altogether Better and the Collaborative Practice programme below:

• • A good starting point to understand the work can be found if you click on the Altogether Better guide to Collaborative Practice  which contextualises and describes why this work is important to general practice and developing PCNs.
  • If you would rather hear it from someone else’s perspective go to a blog by the health writer and commentor Roy Lilley who visited one of the Collaborative Practices just before the pandemic began last year.  You can find Roy’s blog on the news page of the Altogether Better website
  • If you would like to hear it from the perspective of a practice look at this short film clip with Jane Dawes, from the Blackmore Vale Partnership in Dorset who provides an insight into the difference this work has made to her and the practice. Finding the joy in work again
  • Finally, there is a lot of evidence on the Altogether Better website regarding the impact of the work, do have a look to find out more: The evidence behind our work — Altogether Better. Most recently, the work featured as an example of coproduction best practice in the BMJ Leader.

Thank you