The Prevention and Enablement Model (PEM) is a county-wide strategy that works to ensure everyone in Essex can live an active and independent life, whatever their circumstances. The three-way partnership between Active Essex, Sport for Confidence and Essex County Council works closely with professionals in health and social care settings across Essex to deliver their aim.
Sinéad Connor is a Commissioning Manager in Adult Social Care and part of the core PEM delivery team. Sinéad played an integral role in mobilising the model, working in the development stages before the project launched in August 2020 and has continued to provide strategic oversight and advice to the delivery team.
A key part of Sinéad’s role is briefing key stakeholders on the progress of PEM in order to influence future decisions around the model.. The relationships that Sinéad and her colleagues maintain with stakeholders is key in ensuring the sustainability of the model. Sinéad said: “A big part of our role is around sharing the learning and the work we’re doing and to bring others along with us, hopefully resulting in a sustainable change in the way we deliver care and support to our residents.”
The goal of the model is to give people living with a disability, and those supporting them, the tools to incorporate activity into their lives in a way that is meaningful to them. We know that activity helps to prevent possible mental and physical health issues, as well as being a great way to connect people in their community.
In Adult Social Care, having multiple ways to support prevention is crucial in the way residents are cared for in the long run. It can be quite hard to access data to support activity as a tool for prevention, however, Sinéad hopes PEM will change this. She said: “There is rightly a focus on how we shift from long term care and support to prevention and early intervention, and PEM embodies this in full. It has always been a challenge to provide solid evidence around the impact of prevention, even though we know the economic value of preventative health is enormous. Our PEM Test and Learn should provide the data and analysis to help back this argument up.”
A crucial element to the success of PEM is how well professionals across different health and social care settings in Essex can collaborate with each other to adapt and deliver the approach.
This has been a success so far – Sinéad said: “PEM is demonstrating a different approach for how the system can work collaboratively to improve the lives of people living with disabilities and/or long term health conditions.”
The collaborative aspect is something that Sinéad has really enjoyed when coordinating and delivering the model. She added: “What I love about PEM is how it has provided a common goal to unite so many different partners to work together. The variety it provides when working with lots of different people from across the system, with different experiences and views, really adds to our approach and just makes it a more fun experience. I think it’s helped that we are all equal partners at the table with a vital role to play.”
Sinéad has learned a fair few things during the test and learn phase of the PEM pilot. Firstly, the importance of having clear goals and objectives at the start, and checking in with them throughout. Sinéad said: “It’s important to build and agree on a shared ambition from the start, with clear roles and responsibilities for those involved. It’s also important to be clear on your outcomes and success measures before you start the delivery. It’s also vital to factor in enough time in the ‘planning and mobilisation ’phase before beginning the project delivery and collecting data.”
Secondly, being able to adapt under pressure has been key in the delivery’s success. Sinéad commented: “Even in the midst of a global pandemic, so much has been achieved. Everyone involved in PEM has been incredible in having to adapt plans and be flexible in times of uncertainty.”
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, the importance of communication. Sinéad said: “Engagement and communication is key, as is Identifying key ‘players ’and champions to help influence others to bring them along the journey with you. We’re trying a whole new way of working with PEM and it’s going to bring about challenges, but if you have the right people working together you can overcome them. Strong relationships are at the heart of the success of PEM – trust, open, communication and flexibility are vital.”
Along with these lessons learned from the PEM test and learn phase, Sinéad has identified that having great evaluation procedures in place is something that could be carried forward to other projects in Adult Social Care. She said: “There is so much about PEM that should be taken forward in other projects. Evaluation is so important; a robust evaluation is not only there to show the impact a project has had, but to help develop a learning and improvement culture in Adult Social Care.”
Sinéad is looking forward to the next phase of the Prevention and Enablement Model, following this encouraging start. She commented: “What we’ve been able to demonstrate in the first half of this test and learn is really encouraging. Hopefully this is only the start of the journey. To be able to see the positive impact of the support PEM provides to those that need it most is inspiring.”
