Back Ground Paper to Recruitment February 2015

Primary Care Navigators

Background to Age UK Camden

Age UK Camden (AUC) works to support older people "make the most of life". It is a responsive and dynamic organisation, and is the largest voluntary organisation working with older people in Camden. Its 68 (40 FTE) staff and 250 volunteers are broadly representative of the multicultural community in Camden. The organisation is involved in several innovative partnership initiatives with Camden Council, the NHS, and the voluntary sector.

The financial turnover of the organisation is just about £2.2 million, with about 2/3 of income coming from Camden Council in contracts and grants. Other funding comes from Camden Clinical Commissioning Group, charitable trusts, the Lottery, donations, legacies, a shop and charges.

Age UK Camden (AUC) is keen to ensure that older people participate at all levels of the organisation, and are properly consulted and involved in the planning and implementation of services.

Activities

Age UK Camden (AUC) offers a range of services and projects to support, inform, advise and inspire older people resident in the borough. Our services include: Advice, Information and Advocacy, Computer Training, Counselling, Direct Payments Support, Opening Doors London, Good Neighbour Schemes, Home Service, Nail Care Service, 2 Day Resource Centres, Shopping Service and Volunteering Opportunities.

AUC’s Direct Payments Support Service has been used as a model for guides by Age UK and Counsel and Care (now part of Independent Age). AUC’s counselling service has been praised as a good practice model nationally and runs as a sub-contractor of Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust. AUC’s Information and advice Service is part of the Camden Advice Partnership. Opening Doors London (ODL) is an innovative regional LGBT service in partnership with other local Age UKs and Age UK London. ODL already has a distinct brand and consideration is being given to its governance model e.g. establishing it as a subsidiary charity of AUC.

The organisation raises income through running a charity shop in Leather Lane, EC, and donations and legacies.

Age UK Camden also has a newly established charitable subsidiary Personalisation Support in Camden which supports those disabled people aged under 65 with direct payments and a PA payroll service.

AUC and Camden the borough

Camden is a borough of contrasts – stretching from Hampstead and Highgate in the North to Holborn and parts of Covent Garden in the South. The diversity is reflected in wealth and poverty “cheek by jowl” and a rich ethnic mix. Among the significant minority ethnic communities are Bangladeshi, Somali, Chinese and Irish people. Just 3 miles apart in the borough (Hampstead and Somers Town) are two areas where the life expectancy differs by as much as 11 years. Camden Council – AUC’s main funder and key partner – is an award winning authority with a good record of investment in services for older people.

AUC’s main office is in Tavis House on Tavistock Square, within walking distance of Euston and Kings Cross stations and so we are very well served with tube, train and bus routes – some would call it the public transport hub of Western Europe – which aids AUC in terms of staff recruitment and retention. AUC is co-located at Tavis House with Age UK (national/international) but constitutionally separate.

Further background information

If you would like to find out further information about Age UK Camden, please visit our website at: www.ageukcamden.org.uk. Our latest Annual Review, Accounts and an organisational video (In Their Own Words) are all available online. For key borough information and strategies visit www.camden.gov.uk

Background to the posts of Primary Care Navigators

This section should be read in conjunction with the Job Description.

Age UK Camden (AUC) and its partner Camden Carers Service will be delivering this exciting new service for Camden Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) until March 2017. Care Navigation is a strategic priority for Camden CCG and a core element of the frail and elderly work programme.

Camden CCG is committed to improving the coordination of care for frail and elderly patients, and for people with long term conditions. The scope of frailty is currently defined as patients who are 75+, with one or more long term conditions and with experience of a non-elective hospital admission within the last 12 months.

Effective coordination of care means more joined up working between and across services, including GPs, other health professionals, social care and the voluntary and community sector. Care Navigators will be points of liaison between patients, the locality multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) and local community and voluntary sector providers. They will support patients in identifying ways of achieving individual health improvement through the delivery of personal goals, and connecting with appropriate health services and other non-traditional providers to make best use of community resources to support the delivery of these goals. This will include supporting some patients to access health and social care services and prevent those at risk of not turning up to appointments and/or inappropriate use of services from doing so- for example, including supporting vulnerable patients to attend appointments through escorting.

Care Navigation will be a distinct service with a clear and demarcated offer to GPs and patients, taking referrals from GPs only. It will work alongside an integrated primary care team, and an existing base of volunteer navigators in GP practices, social workers in Primary Care and an emerging team around the practice model to support people with mental health problems. The service will also complement and make use of other resources such as the new Care Connectors, which will target isolated and lonely older adults across Camden. A decision tree process will be established in conjunction with the service before it is operational and refined as necessary during year 1 to ensure effective cross referral and best use of all resources.

The care navigation service will make use of information and advice resources to maintain high quality and up to date knowledge of local services, organisations and initiatives in Camden and available to people registered with a Camden GP. In particular, the Care Navigation service will have strong links with the advice and information offer from the London Borough of Camden, which is intended to promote health and wellbeing and to provide the local population with information on the health and social care landscape. This is an essential repository with an effective channel of up-to- date information. Strong levels of mutual support will support a high quality care navigation service.

In addition to excellent and accurate resource finding and knowledge, the service will need to demonstrate high quality relationship building with a wide range of statutory, community and voluntary sector partners.

Care Navigation is a significant building block in successful delivery of the integrated care agenda in Camden.

Care Navigators will be based in GP surgeries, but details are yet to be worked out.