Demonstrator Archives

We asked Robin Miller, IMPACT Demonstrators Lead, and Sarah McLoughlin, our Strategic Improvement Coach, to reflect on 2022 and the Demonstrator project so far. Our Demonstrator is taking place in Northern Ireland, and is looking at ‘asset-based approaches’, and how older people can have a better life via health and social services working in new ways with them, the community, and the voluntary sector.

What have been your wins/highlights of 2022?

The potential value that can be generated through IMPACT partnering with an innovative local area to learn from their experiences and support them to build on their strengths. Mid & East Antrim has been a great place for the Demonstrator model to be piloted due to MEAAP’s established networks with older people and with policy and practice partners. Our World Café stakeholder event was an excellent reflection of this – 50 people with lived experience and/or professionals coming together to discuss, debate and design.

How have your aspirations for the project/IMPACT changed?

The overall aspirations for the project – understanding how to engage all of the relevant stakeholders in a local area with innovation, identifying what the important elements of an asset-based approach in primary and social care – remain the same. Through the gathering of lived, practice and research evidence the opportunities to support improvement have become clearer though, for example in relation to responding to the different expectations of diverse communities and demonstrating to professionals how the approach can save them time as well as benefit older people and their families.

What have you learned so far?

When planning future Demonstrators, it will be important that there is a good level of commitment from across the social and health care system, and a local organisation who is well connected and willing to lead on the process in this area.

There are relatively few people with all the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake a strategic improvement role in social care – therefore part of the role of IMPACT needs to be on workforce development and building a cadre of people with these skills.

What are your hopes for next year?

Apart from the very practical hope that our second Improvement Coach is appointed, we want to take forward the actions that are set out in the theory of change regarding increasing the spread and further strengthening the depth of this asset-based approach. We would also hope for policy makers in Northern Ireland to learn from our experience in Mid and East Antrim as they develop the integrated care system.

What’s unique about your ‘asset-based approaches’ project?

The strength of connection with older people in the local area, the high level of commitment from stakeholders, and the capacity building activities with the voluntary and community sector.

The World Café event we ran in November, and feedback from older people and wider stakeholders is a great example of the project’s impact to date.

Find out more about the Demonstrator project.

In this blog, IMPACT’s Robin Miller and Sarah McLaughlin celebrate the set up of the first IMPACT Demonstrator

We’re mid-way through our Establishment phase, and deep in the middle of setting up our initial pilot projects to test our four delivery models. We are delighted to share that our first IMPACT Demonstrator has been set up.

Demonstrator background

This Demonstrator will be based in Mid & East Antrim, where a successful asset-based project is already in place. IMPACTAgewell® was introduced in 2017 by the Mid & East Antrim Agewell Partnership (MEAAP) in partnership with local health and social care organisations through funding from the Dunhill Medical Trust (a member of the IMPACT consortium). Its innovative model includes linking people to community resources, multi-disciplinary locality hubs to bring together professionals in a locality on a regular basis and ‘funded’ social prescriptions which enable resources to flow to voluntary and community organisations.

IMPACT Demonstrators will explore how we can use evidence to address major strategic issues for adult social care. Improvement ‘coaches’, including people with lived and/or practice experience) will work in local services to facilitate an evidence-informed change, support evaluation and work with national policy and practice to embed any lessons learned.

Asset-based approaches

The first Demonstrator will be focused on ‘asset-based approaches’ and in particular how older people can have a better life via health and social services working in new ways with them and with the community and voluntary sector.

As well as learning from their success to date, the Demonstrator will work with IMPACTAgewell® to ensure that this approach is available to all older people in the local area. At present most, but not all, general practices participate, and therefore some older people are not able to benefit from the opportunity. Partial implementation is a common issue when introducing an innovation. The local community and voluntary-led partnership would like to examine how the engagement process can develop, and how they can encourage and support the engagement of all the services and professionals in the area. Doing so could ultimately lead to the scale and spread of the model to other areas.

Sarah has been appointed as the first improvement coach and the second post will shortly be advertised by the University of Ulster – we will share vacancies when they are made live. We will update our project page with updates from Robin, Sarah and the MEAAP team.