A before and after study of integrated training sessions for children's health and care services

Bibliographic Data

ID12287308
AuthorsEmma Alexander (0000-0001-7063-6846, King's College London GKT School of Medical Education; London UK, corresponding author), Debra de Silva (0000-0001-8413-5487, The Evidence Centre; London UK), Rachel Clarke (0000-0003-0102-7777, London Borough of Newham; London UK), Meradin Peachey (London Borough of Newham; London UK), Logan Manikam (0000-0001-5288-3325, UCL Institute Epidemiology & Healthcare, London Borough of Newham; London UK)
Year2018
Volume26
Issue6
Pages801-809
Publication date2018-07-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth & Social Care in the Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-0410 • E-ISSN: 1365-2524
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/hsc.12588
PMID30047604
OpenAlexW2883395684
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

Recent UK policy drivers such as the National Collaboration for Integrated Care and Support and Making Every Contact Count prioritise integrated care, an approach that seeks to provide more coordinated and seamless health and social care. In children's services, despite many partners, there are challenges around integrating care. A deprived borough of London ran short training and networking sessions for services supporting children and young people. This study examined whether intersectoral training would improve participants' knowledge of local services and joint working (including communication, navigation and confidence in collaboration). As part of a service evaluation, the study utilised a pre-post Likert scale survey design for each training session, a 1-month follow-up survey, and telephone interviews with a subsample of participants. The educational intervention was three sets of 1.5 hr educational workshops from December 2016 to February 2017. There were 302 attendances from 202 individuals from the health (n = 99), education (n = 145), social care (n = 39) and voluntary (n = 19) sectors. The pre and post surveys found significant increases in self-assessed knowledge of health/education/social care/voluntary services and in some elements of joint working. However, these increases were not sustained in any domain after 1 month of follow-up. There was also no difference in self-assessments amongst those who attended three sessions compared to those who attended one or two. Telephone interviewees highlighted networking as being helpful and suggested that informative tasks and diverse attendance would be beneficial in future. To conclude, this study suggests that although short-learning sessions may seem to improve immediate knowledge and some elements of joint working in the short term, any gains are not sustained in the long term. The cost effectiveness of such schemes is in doubt but may be improved by a more targeted delivery of content

Attendance · Business · Health care · Intervention (counseling · Likert scale · Medical education · Scale (ratio · Session (web analytics · Healthcare Systems and Technology · Interprofessional Education and Collaboration · Medicine · Nursing · Primary Care and Health Outcomes · Psychology · Social Work