The Enhance Programme is a partnership between 13 third sector delivery partners and Leeds Community Healthcare (LCH) services, providing person-centred holistic support at home for people receiving community-based healthcare.

About this project

Enhance supports safe and sustainable discharge from hospital and Neighbourhood Teams into a secure home environment. The programme links third sector organisations with Neighbourhood Teams and other agencies to avoid delayed discharges and readmissions for individuals, and to enhance capacity throughout the system.

Enhance provides:

• Proactive and responsive support to people referred by LCH services to promote recovery and rehabilitation, improve health and quality of life, prevent deterioration and support wider health and wellbeing for up to 12 weeks.
• Enhanced capacity for LCH services by reducing time spent on non-clinical tasks and reducing clinical demand for LCH clinicians by improving health and wellbeing for people.

How to refer to Enhance

Enhance referrals can only be made by Leeds Community Healthcare staff. First, check which delivery partner you need to make the referral to by using the postcode finder tool then give them a call to check that a referral is appropriate. Then go to the LCH Intranet to complete the referral form which must be sent securely.

Enhance delivery partners

Each of the Enhance third sector delivery partners supports individuals referred to them, in the following ways.

Person-centred support, including:

• Home visits
• Opportunities for social connection
• Support in managing health (such as setting up repeat prescriptions, dosette boxes, key safes)

Information and advice, including:

• Ensure home environment is safe through, for example, a ‘safe and well’ referral to the Fire Service, including ensuring their home is warm and free from falls risks.
• Prompt exercise by liaising with therapy services as appropriate, linking to exercise classes, encouraging movement in and around home
• Ensure access to appropriate welfare benefits, such as Attendance Allowance, Carers Allowance and Pension Credit, blue badge and bus pass applications and renewals.
• Support self-management
• Provision of regular contact/check-in for up to 12 weeks, for example through home visits, phone calls, and access to an organisation’s activities.
• Support access to health appointments, for example through appointment reminders, access to transport, accompanying to appointments.
• Ensure access to food, such as through food parcels, personal shopping, support to shop online, meals on wheels, meeting dietary needs and access to lunch clubs.

Partnership work, including:

• Joint visit and double up of visits with LCH staff when both are able.
• Regular communication and appropriate and regular two way information sharing.
• Agency advocacy, liaison and referrals, such as ongoing referrals, links to specialist support including Adult Social Care, Care & Repair (aim for’ no wrong door’ approach).
• Sharing good practice to contributing to the test and learn ethos
• Peer learning events facilitated by LOPF

Please click here to use the Enhance postcode finder and map to find the right third sector delivery partner to refer to for each Neighbourhood Team.

North Leeds

South Leeds

West Leeds

Please click here to use the Enhance postcode finder and map to find the right third sector delivery partner to refer to for each Neighbourhood Team.

Learning from year 2 of Enhance

In November 2023 we commissioned three videos focusing on staff and participants’ experience of Enhance, and held a conference – ‘people ● prevention ● partnership: Sharing learning from year 2 of the Enhance programme’.

Watch the videos and read the conference outcomes:

Enhance: Impact on people (YouTube, 4:22)

Enhance: Impact on Leeds Community Healthcare Trust (YouTube, 4:32)

Enhance: Power of partnership (YouTube, 4:24)

people ● prevention ● partnership: Summary of Enhance conference outcomes

Enhance peer learning

We organise regular peer learning sessions, to help share information and good practice between our 3^rd sector delivery partners, and between delivery partners and Leeds Community Healthcare.

Please get in touch with suggestions for topics that you would find helpful.

We also write a briefing from each session to ensure the learning is shared further. See our collection of learning briefings below.

Enhance stories

Peter’s and Sandra’s stories

Peter and Sandra (each aged 62) talk about how life has got better through contact with the Enhance project at Health for All.

Peter and Sandra (each aged 62) talk about how life has got better through contact with the Enhance project at Health for All.

Dave’s story

Dave (aged 76) talks about how important the Enhance project at Armley Helping Hands has been for him.

You can read more ‘Stories from the front line’ about how individuals have benefitted from Enhance in our learning briefing 5 and learning briefing 9.

Enhance learning briefings

We are compiling and publishing valuable learning from the Enhance programme as we go along. You can read and download them here. All of them – and many more reports, toolkits and case studies – are available in the resources section of this site.

• Enhance learning briefing 1: Feedback on the process for applying for Enhance funding from Leeds Older People’s Forum (June 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 2: Early reflections on cross-sector working between Third Sector organisations and Neighbourhood Teams in Leeds (July 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 3: How are things going in the early stages of delivery? (August 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 4: The cost of living crisis – the challenges and the support on offer (September 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 5: Stories from the front line (October 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 6: Leeds Public Health Winter messages (November 2022)
• Enhance Learning briefing 7: Practical ideas for better monitoring and evaluation (December 2022)
• Enhance learning briefing 8: Sharing success and considering a core offer (January 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 9: Stories from the front line (February 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 10: Stories from the front line (May 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 11: Progress as Year 2 gets underway (July 2023)
• Enhance Learning Briefing 12: Cross-sector collaboration to improve health outcomes (August 2023)
• Enhance Learning Briefing 13: Stories from the frontline – People, Prevention, Partnership (October 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 14: Review of the Enhance medication prompt pilot (November 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 15: Review of the work with neighbourhood teams (November 2023)
• Enhance learning briefing 16: holistic, person-centred support (January 2024)
• Enhance learning briefing 16a: summary report – holistic, person-centred support (January 2024)

Key Enhance documents

• Enhance Second Round Evaluation Report (PDF)
• Summary of the Enhance evaluation findings for year two (PDF)
• Enhance programme learning and evaluation findings: Evaluation Questionnaire Analysis (PDF)
• Improving health outcomes through reducing financial inequality (PDF)
• Improving health outcomes through reducing social isolation and loneliness (PDF)
• Keeping safe and avoiding crisis (PDF)
• Keeping well through movement, nutrition and hydration (PDF)
• Supporting independence through digital inclusion (PDF)
• Evaluation of the Enhance programme: summary report (PDF)
• An evaluation of phase one of Enhance (PDF)
• Summary of key third sector offers (v1) (PDF)