In this blog, our Programme Development Lead, Holly, shares details of the final three grants made in response to the Better Careers for Better Care open funding call.
As part of our new strategic and collaborative grant-making programme into adult social care, we are very excited to share news of three further grants following an open call early this year. These grants will join North London Councils, Leeds Health and Care Academy, Care City Innovation CIC, the Care Workers’ Charity and ADASS as grantee organisations of our Better Careers for Better Care programme. For more information on these, please read my blog from July.
We have been privileged to work alongside the eight grantee partnerships in developing the proposals. We have learnt a huge amount through these relationships and will now build a learning community with the grantee organisations to share programme insights, identify themes and agree collectively how best to disseminate learning. We will also use what we learn to inform the Foundation’s future grant-making and to support other funders to consider funding social care.
If you would like to remain updated on programme news, upcoming events, and future funding opportunities, please email me – hbaine@raynefoundation.org.uk
BelleVie
Grant agreed: £300,000 over 2 years (September 2024-Aug 2026)
BelleVie is a for-profit and for-purpose homecare provider, inspired by the successful ‘Buurtzorg’ model which has transformed health and care systems in the Netherlands. The model emphasises autonomy to both those supporting and being supported at home through self-managing teams, and has significantly improved job satisfaction, reduced employee turnover and elevated service user satisfaction scores.
BelleVie has been delivering homecare to self-funded individuals/families through self-managing teams since 2019. The organisation is committed to the democratisation of access and is determined to prove the economic model for state-funded care and develop an outcomes-focused model of commissioning.
With funding from the Rayne Foundation, BelleVie will work with Northumberland County Council and end users to design, deliver and evaluate the economic and social outcomes of the model and subsidise the cost of care while the model is iterated. The team will work closely with Northumberland County Council to find and quantify efficiency savings made from optimising rotas, trialling Electric Vehicles, and reducing pressure on social work teams, in good time to influence the redesign of the commissioning framework.
The BelleVie team also hopes to build quantitative evidence that delivering homecare through self-managing teams reduces the burden on the NHS through delivery of delegated healthcare tasks and providing a more flexible response in emergencies. Building the evidence that investing in high quality homecare reduces costs for the NHS will support integrated health and care commissioning in the future.
Barnsley Health and Care Partnership
Grant agreed: £250,000 over three years (September 2024-August 2027)
Barnsley Health and Care Partnership (HCP) is one of four place partnerships within South Yorkshire Integrated Care System (ICS). The Rayne Foundation will support the development of the Barnsley HCP’s ‘Proud to Care Barnsley’, a local campaign to improve recruitment and retention in the health and care sector. The campaign has already had a significant impact with 488 people engaged and 173 people supported directly into employment between October 2023 and January 2024.
With additional funding, the team can go further and faster in developing and embedding their system approach to workforce development. This will include:
- Developing care colleagues’ leadership skills alongside health and third sector counterparts through a tailored, co-created programme of collaborative practice development..
- Developing career pathways that span health and social care, including social work and commissioning, which would include training and education, coaching, mentoring, work placement and experience.
- Building a community of colleagues working across social care, health, local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to enable access and improve the experience of care and support for those receiving it.
Having the proposal based within the South Yorkshire ICB and originating from the health sector, is unique in the Better Careers cohort and will provide rich learning. The partnership has already shown internal commitment through funding and with the Foundation’s additional support, Barnsley could become a trailblazer in putting integration into practice.
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System
Grant agreed: £100,000 over 3 years (October 2024-September 2027)
Nottinghamshire County Council is leading a partnership on behalf of Nottingham & Nottinghamshire ICB and ICS.
- Extensive work has been undertaken across the ICS to understand the nature and needs of the external adult social care workforce including a deep dive into the Skills for Care ASC Workforce Data Set and a series of ‘What Matters to Me’ engagement sessions with the sector. Coming out of this process, three priority areas were identified and three connected solutions were co-produced: Recruitment and retention: establish a brand for the local care workforce to create a sense of belonging for social care staff, utilising an online centralised careers academy and skills hub.
- Promoting recognition, respect and understanding: launch a new Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Care Awards.
- Development and Learning: deliver a Leadership Programme to train and nurture aspiring leaders within the external social care workforce and provide much needed backfill for providers to allow them to release staff onto the leadership programme.
The Rayne Foundation funding will support the development of a branded online platform and leadership training. Since the development of the proposal, internal funding has been found for the Care Awards, with the first event planned for November this year.
We see this grant as an opportunity to partner with a Local Authority committed to co-production with those providing, delivering and drawing on care and support. The team is grounded in practical action and driven by an underlying commitment to a broader culture change which increases the recognition and influence of social care as a sector and care workers at an individual level.