Partnership Projects for Older People (POPP) is managed by the Department of Health’s Older People and Disability Division. The aim of the project is to test and evaluate innovative approaches that sustain prevention work in order to improve outcomes for older people.
The programme was launched in March 2004 and is investing £60 million funding for councils with Social Services Responsibilities to establish locally innovative pilot projects in partnership with older people, Primary Care Trusts, the voluntary sector, community and independent sector.
The key aim of the pilots is to deliver large scale system reform across health and care services to deliver improved outcomes for older people.
The pilots are focused on demonstrating improvements in 3 key areas:
- Providing more low level care and support in the community to improve the health, well being and independence of older people, preventing or delaying the need for higher intensity and more costly care.
- Reducing avoidable emergency admissions and/or days spent in hospital.
- Supporting more older people to live at hoe or in supported housing such as sheltered or extra care housing as opposed to in long term residential care.
The programme has awarded funding of up to two years to 29 partnerships across the country during 2006-2008, with a view to demonstrating a range of models and identifying approaches, which are potentially replicable across England in different health and social care communities.
The pilots have been launched in two phases. The first phase (19 pilot sites) was launched in May 2006 and was awarded a share of £41m. The second phase (10 pilots) was launched in May 2006 and was awarded a share of £18.5m.
All of the pilots are receiving implementation support through the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) and are subject to robust evaluation at a local and national level.
The Department of Health is funding a two and a half year national evaluation of the POPP programme which began in April 2006.
