1. Evaluating Community Link Working in Scotland: Learning from the ‘early adopters’ Jane Ford, NHS Health Scotland Themina Mohammed & Gordon Hunt, NSS Local Intelligence Support Team (LIST)

2. Why evaluate Community Link Working in Scotland?
Growing but limited evidence on community link worker (CLW) approaches in primary care
Scottish Government requested guidance on evaluation of Community Link Worker programme
Build on existing local programmes and learning
Capturing learning to inform implementation and delivery
Scope shifted through time from the 250 to ‘early adopters’
NHS Health Scotland and NSS Local Intelligence Support Team (LIST) – working closely with CLW ‘early adopter’ teams

3. Understanding questions and priorities
Early discussions to identify programme outcomes and potential evaluation questions - prioritised options
What was needed:
Developing a minimum core dataset (MCD) to be completed across the Programme gives:
opportunity to underpin the service with scope for learning across sites
commitment to collecting core data, quality assured and tested - to inform ongoing learning (with potential to underpin further, more detailed local evaluation)
Qualitative work to understand experiences of ‘early adopters’
CLW work core to the National Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy for Primary Care in Scotland

4. What might the evaluation help us understand?
MCD
Qualitative
PATIENTS
Who is receiving the CLW service? 
PRACTICES
How does the CLW programme reduce demand on the GP practice?
Scoping
How do different CLW models of delivery influence programme delivery and outcomes (e.g. individual practice vs cluster models of service)?
Is there any change in nature and source of referrals over time?
Does the programme reduce pressure on practice teams for those patients who access the Link Worker service?
COMMUNITY & THIRD SECTOR
Is the Link Worker programme sustainable?
Does the Programme enable stronger practice-community relationships?
SERVICE PLANNING
Is programme information and learning used by HSCPs and CPPs to inform service planning?
Does the Programme contribute to understanding of local partners to determine how to best address the needs of their populations?

5. Understanding context and experiences
Qualitative work will help us to understand:
experiences of CLW teams delivering programmes in a shifting political and service landscape
CLW team perspectives on the potential impact of different models of delivery (e.g. on reach, referrals, integration of CLW within a GP Practice)
extent to which wider service capacity might impact on programme’s success and sustainability
understand the barriers and facilitators to delivering a CLW programme
what other areas can learn from current experience

6. Progress so far Interviews and focus groups March - May 2019
Participants
Sites
Method
Role 27 4
3 focus groups
6 interviews
19 CLWs
2 data support
6 management roles
Analysis of minimum core dataset (Themina Mohammed & Gordon Hunt, LIST)

7. What’s next? Work closely with local teams to:
ensure findings are interpreted in a way that maximises learning locally and across the programme
enables learning from local variations in service delivery models and context
Learning from the ‘early adopters’:
Initial reporting back to local sites and Scottish Government (summer 2019)
Discussions to inform ongoing learning
Future reporting of MCD
Scoping possible local data linkage (e.g. use of primary care services, prescribing data)
What would you find helpful?

8. Big thanks to all the ‘early adopter’ teams! Please contact:
Thank you
Big thanks to all the ‘early adopter’ teams!
Please contact:
Jane Ford Themina Mohammed
NHS Health Scotland NSS LIST