A pioneering, proactive, collaborative approach to finding and supporting people in central Bradford who require healthcare but may not be having all their needs met, has led to our Proactive Care Team (PACT) being shortlisted for a prestigious national award – the 2023 Nursing Times HRH The Prince of Wales Award for Integrated Approaches to Care.

PACT is supported by Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership and delivered by our Care Trust in partnership with Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dementia UK and City Health Bradford GP Federation.

Part of the Reducing Inequalities in Communities (RIC) programme, which is made up of 21 projects or interventions working to reduce inequalities in central Bradford, PACT works specifically across three areas of central Bradford to address health inequalities.

The team’s pioneering approach sees it proactively seeking patients through health data and case load review, as well as case finding through accident and emergency departments and visiting community centres to let local people know about the support that’s available.

PACT Team leader Sue Butters says: “We’re unique not only in how we seek out patients but in having a collaborative, coordinated, multi-disciplinary team. Rather than assessing someone’s needs and then making multiple referrals to different healthcare teams, we have 11 different disciplines within the Proactive Care team, so we can quickly provide support with, for example, diet, physiotherapy, medication, mobility, mental health or Dementia.”

The team’s unique approach is also anticipatory. It can involve seeking out for example, young carers who may be registered with a GP practice, but not attending for a smear test or mammogram, which could give an early indication of a healthcare issue.

“These may be people who have been registered with a GP practice for years but not responding to invitations for health checks,” explains Sue, “and that could be for the simple reason, an interpreter is needed, which we can provide.

Mental health nurse Joanne Woodcock is part of the Proactive Care Team. She says: “We don’t have criteria as such… do you meet this threshold, do you have this illness, have you had it for so long.

“We don’t do that, we look at every single person as a person… We try to anticipate and predict what could happen to somebody, so we can look at the case files, the history and think ‘they’re really high risk of falling’, ‘they’re really high risk of dementia’.”

Specialist Dementia care Admiral Nurse Rachel Spaven comments: “There’s no other team I know who work so closely together and are so flexible. I’ve been a nurse for 14 years and the job satisfaction I get from working with PACT is like no other team, I feel I can really make a difference.”

PACT was established in September 2020 and has received over 2500 referrals to date for its short to medium-term care and support.  The team will find out in October if its pioneering, proactive and collaborative approach to preventing ill health and providing holistic care for patients in central Bradford has won its category at the Nursing Times 2023 Awards.

Find out more about the Proactive Care Team.

Full details of individuals and teams shortlisted for the Nursing Times Awards 2023: Nursing Times Awards 2023 – 2023 shortlist