Evaluation of the Out-of-Hospital Care Models programme for people experiencing homelessness
Final report
Cornes, M., Tinelli, M., Clark, M., Coombes, J., Harris, J., Burridge, S., Robinson, J., & Wittenberg, R. (2024) Evaluation of the Out-of-Hospital Care Models Programme for People Experiencing Homelessness. London: NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King's College London. (Summary also available.)
Launched at King's College London, 30 April 2024, with over 100 people attending.
- Video of the launch event (1hr 20min, YouTube).
- Presentation slides from the launch event.
- See the LSE page on this event and for onward links.
The photo immediately below shows four of the speakers at the event (left to right): Sam Dorney-Smith (Pathway), Jemma Gilbert (Director, Transformation Partners in Health and Care), Michela Tinelli (co-PI of the study, LSE), and Peter Moore, (Programme Manager, Oxford City Council).
The next photo shows Jemma Gilbert (who chaired the event) with Michelle Cornes (co-PI of the study, University of Salford; Visiting Professorial Fellow at King's).
The third photo shows the expert panel (left to right): Victoria Bennett (NHS England), Sam Dorney-Smith (Pathway), Jemma Gilbert, and Bola Akinwale (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities; and DHSC).
Also speaking at the event, from a lived experience perspective, were Sarah Dowling (Oxfordshire Lived Experience Forum) and Joanne Coombes (Peer Researcher, King’s College London).
About the study
The Joint Principal Investigators of this project are Michelle Cornes (NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's) and Michela Tinelli (LSE).
In the photo below: members of the research team at the first project meeting, 21 October 2021, at the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College London. From left: Michela Tinelli, Jo Coombes, Michelle Cornes, Lizzie Biswell, Stan Burridge.
Aims
- The overall aim of the evaluation is to capture the learning from test sites from the OOHCM programme and to evidence the outcomes that are being achieved.
- Provide an understanding of the most effective way of implementing(scaling) out-of-hospital care across a wider range of areas – including how to shift to this position and the conditions needed to maximise the effectiveness and sustainability of the services.
- Describe how models are being integrated into the evolving health, housing and social care system, supporting D2A (the new NHS hospital discharge operating model), the NHS Long-Term Plan and Covid Care/recovery.
- Identify the challenges that remain to systems and service delivery that require changes outside the direct control of organisations in the locality.
- Further test the key components of effective and cost-effective models especially where they have not previously been brought together into a single system.
Background
Research suggests that out-of-hospital care is effective and cost effective in supporting safe, timely transfers of care for patients who are homeless (Cornes et al., 2019 & 2021). At present, access to out-of-hospital care is limited or non-existent for people experiencing homelessness. In 2020, the Department of Health and Social Care, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Ministry of Justice allocated £16 million through the shared outcomes fund to “roll-out” and robustly evaluate the Out-of-Hospital Care Model (OOHCM) for people who are homeless. In the same year, a new hospital discharge operating model Discharge to Assess (D2A) was implemented across England to meet the demands of the pandemic and increase in hospitalisations. A key objective of the OOHCM programme is aimed at exploring how support for homeless patients can be integrated as part of the new D2A operating model.
Methods
A mixed methods approach comprising four work packages:
- WP1: Basic Audit
- WP2: Study of Positive Practice
- WP3: Full Economic Evaluation
- WP4: Discrete Choice Experiment User Preference
People with lived experience will be actively involved in all aspects of the evaluation as specialist advisors and peer researchers.
Funding
Department of Health and Social Care
Timescale
September 2021 – August 2023
Further reading
Read the guidance published by the King's Team and partners for the LGA and ADASS on Home First: Discharge to Assess and Homelessness (March 2023).
Our research has been cited (p. 26) in the NHS England guidance: Intermediate care framework for rehabilitation, reablement and recovery following hospital discharge (September 2023).
And see: National framework for NHS – action on inclusion health (October 2023).
Further information
The page for this project on the LSE website carries much more information and access to the beta dashboards. And see this blog by Michela Tinelli on the NIHR School for Social Care Research website (14 Dec 2023) and the news item about Michela's webinar (14 Dec 2023) for the King's Homelessness series, a recording of which is available.
See also our earlier project
Our Partners
Principal Investigator
Visiting Professorial Fellow