1. Social Action in Health & Care: Harnessing the power of people to improve outcomes for all
20 October 2016
Alexandra Ankrah, Head of Health & Care Social Action, Office for Civil Society Department for Culture, Media & Sport 1

2. simple, everyday, neighbourly
What is Social Action?
Social action is about people coming together to help improve their lives and tackle the challenges and problems that are important to their communities.
People taking practical action for good, in the service of others.
giving of time
community
action
simple, everyday, neighbourly
acts
giving of money
Not a new thing – and meet some of our team – a diverse group – all with a passion for delivering best and better outcomes…
formal informal

3. The “Theory of Change” for the Social Action Team
Help charities to fundraise effectively
Increased capability of the sector to engage with social action
Increase in quantity and quality of supply of social action initiatives / projects / programmes / models
Help charities to be bid ready
Increased capacity of the sector to engage with social action
Increased social capital:
-personal relationships;
-social network support;
-civic engagement; &
- trust
Provide seed and scaling funding
Increased quantity and quality of innovative models with social action at their centre
More impactful social action embedded in community and public services
Better society through social action
Make knowledge/ best practice accessible to charities and commissioners
Improved well-being
Increased integration with other services
Increase in demand for social action initiatives / projects / programmes / models
Reduced pressure on public services
Increased knowledge about social action amongst commissioners
Key
Increase in evidence of impact/cost effectiveness
Fund process evaluations
Activities
Intermediate Outcomes
Better evaluation
Increased confidence/willingness to commission social action
Fund impact evaluations
Long-term goals
Ultimate Goal

4. 3m Social action in health and social care
King’s Fund say 24m people would consider volunteering in health & social care 3m
People volunteer regularly
Across health & social care
Over 78,000 volunteers
in acute trusts in England
13m hours per year
Social action can:
Reduce demands on public services & improve outcomes
Bring additional resource and knowledge
Empower individuals and communities
Provide new people centred models
It’s not a new thing - the UK has a long history of formal and informal volunteering and giving.
Believe it can achieve a number of things:
Help public services access the resource and knowledge of individuals and the community
Can reduce demands on medical and care services by meeting emotional and practical needs
Empower individuals and communities, enabling local solutions and helping to build resilience
Creates new people centred models for how we can respond to challenges in health and social care
Feedback indicates that our health, ageing and care projects is effective in targeting socially isolated people and reducing loneliness. 4

5. We work with a range of system partners….
At the Heart of Change
£ & Grant management
Cross Government expertise
Trial design
Sharing what works across health & social care & beyond
System wide collaborations

6. Race Disparity: Social Action & Inclusive Policy Making…
Across the UK people from BME backgrounds are working and volunteering in health and social care, how is this being valued?
Evidence tells us that Black people remain underrepresented and underserved by the voluntary sector.
What does inclusion look like?
Prime Minister Theresa May recently launched a ground breaking audit of public services to reveal racial disparities and help end the injustices many people experience each day, here in our nation.
Whitehall departments will now identify and publish information showing how outcomes in public service delivery differ for people of different backgrounds.
Not only will it give every person the ability to check how their race affects the way they are treated by public services, this should enable better outcomes for all – in a Country that must work for everyone. 6

7. What is the Centre for Social Action?
£15m
New investment
A quick overview of our past & current programmes in health and social care.
The goal? To
identify
215 projects.
The aim of the Centre is to robustly test and spread good practice examples of social action - across health and ageing, youth potential, rehabilitation of offenders and skills development - help projects make the case locally for investment.
In the health, ageing and care policy area we have funded and scaled up over 50 projects.
Nesta: expertise and wonderful support for a range of projects, bringing people and ideas together.
and
accelerate
development and spread of
high impact
social action initiatives 22

8. End Of Life Social Action Fund
Challenge
Programme
“There is more to do to engage communities in the end of life so that those affected by dying and death do not feel abandoned and socially isolated”
Dying Well Community Charter
End of Life Social Action Fund
supporting projects using volunteers to provide companionship, emotional support and some practical help

9. Reducing Pressures on Hospitals Funding
Rising demands on A&E during winter
Cohort of vulnerable or socially isolated older people – target age 65+
Scaling up and robustly test existing approaches that mobilise volunteers, using mixed interventions, to meet rising demand.
Aim to sustain and spread successful interventions that help deliver better outcomes and meet demand.
Robust evaluation by Nuffield Trust, providing evidence of impact.
Royal Voluntary Service
Photograph: Getty Images
Joint fund; 7 Pilot sites - August 2014
Additional 30 sites funded for rapid week response - February 2015
Work with ten NHS Hospitals to grow more high impact Volunteering. With Nesta & DofH

10. Carers Social Action Support Fund
Harnessing the assets of communities:
3 in 5 of of us will be
carers at some point in our lives
Carers Social Action Fund backs social action projects to prevent and/or reduce carer breakdown.
Commitment of volunteers to offer support:
Care of people with long-term health conditions accounts for 70% of spend on health and social care in England
This fund is growing social action projects that help people with long-term conditions to self manage 10

11. Our Next Steps…
Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society backs our work in health and care, we are:
Using our growing evidence base to extend our policy reach and influence, to better embed social action and volunteering - making it part of ‘business as usual’.
Invest in new & sustainable approaches to growing social action in health and care, including: long-term conditions, mental health, social isolation, high impact volunteering. We will be seeking co-investment from national and local partners for this work.
Work with government, health & social care & VCSE partners at all levels to tackle the barriers to getting and keeping more people involved in volunteering in health & care – this means addressing system, leadership, attitudinal and incentive barriers.

12. Looking Over the Horizon…
You asked me to talk about the work we have supported that has tackled the disparity in outcomes for BME Communities…
You also asked me going forward what should BME led and involving providers be looking to engage on?
The Honours System: recognizing people’s achievements & their contribution in public life – you get to nominate…
Expansion of National Citizen Serviceis which is open to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England.
Social Investment: SIBs
Expansion of the Community Organisers from 6,500 to 10,000 people.
Dormant Assets Commission £1billion?
Alex will provide an update based on information supplied by colleagues from various teams across The Office for Civil Society.
Alex will also do an update on the above opportunities.
Sector Support – enabling the VCSE
£ Grants and awards to test, trial and scale social action.

13. Thank you
Alexandra Ankrah, Head of Health & Care Social Action, Office for Civil Society Department for Culture, Media & Sport 13