01327 871 118
info@reachforhealth.co.uk
A centre dedicated to physical and mental health rehabilitation
Future Vision
An insight in to our future plans to grow and support more communities and more people
“Research is clear that people who are active, engaged and smiling have healthier happier latter years with less impact from chronic diseases. This also leads to less medication and most importantly seeing less of their GP’s! My own experience, as a GP, is that patients who are active and have a positive outlook on life are much better able to manage the problems such as arthritis, loss of balance, tiredness, and poor sleep.”
Dr Matthew Davies
An Interview with service user, Darren Bavington
Community Health
The State of Ageing 2022 looks at data from a wide range of sources such as the English Housing Survey, the GP Patient survey, the Health Survey for England, the Community Life Survey and the APPG report The Health of the Nation, along with a host of official statistics like the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
What stands-out is that patients who have been admitted to hospital are often readmitted due to lack of support available following discharge from hospital.
The lack of support available has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, with patients receiving fewer face to face physiotherapy appointments.
Physiotherapeutic exercise is proven to reduce outpatient needs and readmission rates amongst those living with short, through to long-term, health conditions and therefore should be utilised to improve the health and wellbeing of patients and prevent further demands from NHS services.
It is also imperative that we find proactive ways to help people not only live longer but live healthier, longer, lives. If we fail in this those living longer will become increasingly in need of NHS & social care services, potentially overwhelming both! The NHS, by its very nature is reactive, it is designed to function in that way. To try to also incorporate proactivity, whilst possible in small ways, is very unlikely to be achievable. We have to find smarter, more consistent and focused ways for this to become standard practise.
Executive Introduction
The Reach for Health Centre community health solution has been evolving since 1994, working with and alongside the NHS and innovating with partners, to create a leading-edge preventative approach which can now be deployed to significantly underpin future communities.
The intention, as a charity, is to now take The Reach for Health Centre model, and replicate this many times over within chosen geographic areas – creating clusters of centres which deliver a community health impact whilst being financially self-sufficient.
The expansion build and opening is achieved in collaboration with the private sector, through the social value act 2012 (suppliers to the NHS and local government are compelled under their contract to return a social value) and also through an innovate Pluggin brand marketing approach which provides brand visibility and community engagement.
Each centre then retains its relationship with its base sponsors, sharing ongoing stories and impact research to build community engagement and raise greater awareness of the positive community health outcomes.
By 2028, the intention is to establish five clusters of The Reach for Health Centres (25 centres) within England and make a significant social and health impact (underpinned by University of Northampton research) which improves and saves lives whilst reducing NHS burdens and costs by millions.
The total sponsorship to build and open 25 centres is budgeted to be £129m, with each cluster being financially self-sufficient (not reliant on government funding) by the end of the 2nd year.
This document provides an introduction to the reader and is intended to engage interest and discussion about how to connect into the charity and become a part of its legacy.
An Interview with service users, Adrian and Louise Kilshaw
Reach for Health
The Reach for Health Centre Ltd has been a registered charity since 2010 but located and operating within Daventry since 1994.
For over 28 years, The Reach for Health Centre model has evolved into a unique community health support solution. It is specifically focused upon working with those experiencing various minor to major health conditions and providing extensive prehabilitation and rehabilitation services to members who have reached the end of available NHS care provisions. This is enhanced by community health facilitation which reduces NHS costs, by focusing upon use of its leading-edge methodology and practice to support community Active Healthy Ageing.
Anyone in the community can join as a member, especially those still suffering from symptoms caused by their health condition when discharged by the NHS – continuing to need physiotherapeutic activity to aid their recovery. Wider users of the Centre join a series of interlinked programmes which encourage greater fitness and improved health as they become older – these include improving frailty, mobility, agility, diet and nutrition, general wellbeing, etc. These are proprietary programmes designed to help members live healthier as well as live longer, reducing the need for various NHS services.
In November 2020, the charity co-created a new purpose-built centre which sits central to a long-term strategic plan. Daventry Centre covers 9,150 square feet (850m2) with a wide range of equipment, much of it being specialist, and some specifically designed for the building. Over 95% of new members attending the centre are referred directly by their GP’s or hospital NHS doctors and consultants, with no funding coming-in from any governmental organisation.
The Centre’s self-sufficiency operating model uses membership (like a typical gym) with a small charge made to service users – on average amounting to c£2.75 per visit. The charity is financially stable, currently having a sufficient reserve to operate without income for up to 12 months.
In 2022, the charity’s Board of Trustees approved a strategic expansion plan which replicates the Daventry Centre to help towns and cities in England to address The State of Ageing 2022 findings. This strategic plan collaborates with the private sector and key partners, to deliver significant social impact; by establishing clusters of Centres regionally as a Hub & Spoke structure. This will provide significant targeted community health support and deliver major NHS savings.
The Reach for Health Centre Impact – Facilitated Community Health
- Reduced requirement for outpatient appointments and hospital beds by working with those at risk of relapse, with Centre members receiving high dose, individualised physiotherapeutic exercise, which is not and cannot be offered by the NHS.
- The ability and necessary expertise to provide rehabilitation for minor health conditions through to major health traumas, e.g. stroke survivors, heart related health problems, COPD, MS, etc.
- Reduced need for other valuable resources offered when in hospital, NHS time and money is saved – which can then be invested in other areas of the NHS.
- Prehabilitation before major and minor operations, the Centre improving strength and mobility and reducing the need for longer stays in hospital post-surgery, therefore freeing up beds and reducing costs on the NHS. Length of hospital stays is shortened as patients can be released earlier safely, as deterioration post-surgery is of a lesser extent.
- Providing in-person rehabilitation, the Centre provides the necessary support to speed up recovery from procedures such as knee and hip replacements.
- Targeted programmes tackling diabetes and weight management, teaching members how to prevent this illness dominating lives.
- Helping members to become less reliant on medications, over time prescriptions can be progressively withdrawn, reducing the need for pharmacy, GP appointments and prescriptions, saving the NHS vital money which can be utilised elsewhere.
- Creating a Centre community, helping residents overcome the feeling of isolation; becoming the place to come for one’s social wellbeing. The Centre provides members with a social setting that is safe, encouraging connection with others in a likewise position and therefore improving mental health.
- Self-Health Management, members with any short to long-term condition supported to take responsibility for their own health, achieving clear and measurable outcomes.
The Reach for Health Centre Strategic Partners
In the last 4 years, the charity has established three important strategic partnerships which has allowed it to carefully design the Trustee approved strategy plan, which replicates the The Reach for Health Centre model within regional clusters and achieve a community health impact:
- A partnership established a teaching Centre methodology and practice, which provides unique time and interaction with Centre members, giving students an enviable “live learning” experience, whilst establishing an ever-growing pool to draw-from as a workforce to support clusters of centres.
- The partnership brings-in healthcare expertise and a dedicated research activity, to help shape, improve services, and inform discussions with GPs and service users. The University will partner with other Higher Education institutions to enable regional expansion.
- A partnership led to the design of the “Centre” for a bespoke, modulised and pre-equipped building which can be mass-manufactured and deployed as clusters within a year. This enables the charity to achieve geographic community health impact within a few short years of set-up.
- The partnership creates a standardised quick-construction property model, making all new build Reach for Health Centres the same but with unique design features to ensure excellent accessibility, rehabilitation areas and capability to support users with severe disability – accommodating specialist equipment with above average height. All prefabricated by offsite construction and then constructed on site to open within 8 weeks.
- A partnership established the charity’s 5-Year strategic plan and clear private sector collaboration approach which establishes clusters centres geographically, connecting brands to high-profile community health impact and NHS savings within regions.
- The partnership connects companies into a high profile regional community health development solution, with brands sponsoring the end-to-end opening of each centre, then being linked to the long-term impact achieved.
An Interview with Rob Juson, Chair of Trustees
Regional Clusters
Having established the Daventry Centre as the viable “model”, the Trustees seek to create geographic clusters of 5 centres within England, which will enable more communities to benefit from a Reach for Health centre support.
The Paragon Space building design for Reach for Health is circa 20% less expensive than conventional build, with groundworks and footings quicker and easier – need lightweight footings. There is a significant speed of construction with better quality control as more is done in the factory by the same team following the same quality control procedures and supervisory monitoring. There is dry construction – meaning thousands of gallons of water does not have to dry during installation. The Centre is significantly more environmentally friendly, with better thermal performance from the finished building and uses solar panels to reduce energy consumption.
For expansion, Paragon Space have devised a programming methodology for the building of clusters rather than just individual Centres one at time. With each building being essentially the same in terms of size, layout and finish this means manufacture and install of one full cluster per year and allows the second year to reach membership critical mass and financial self-sustainability.
Working with private sector sponsors to use their marketing/social value/Corporate Social Responsibility budgets to help open Centres, the charity believes it can transform community health and save the NHS millions of pounds in future years. Sponsors will be aligned with the Centres in communities and are those who supply goods and services to the NHS, health and local government, and are also consumer brands with an active healthy ageing focus.
The Daventry Centre will become the “mothership” for all clusters of Reach for Health Centre locations, providing necessary central quality control and best practice leadership, coordinating recruitment, training and strategic management.
Realistically by 2028, The Reach for Health Centre could have five clusters (25 Centres) – given that the correct land locations are provided either without cost or perhaps on a long-term peppercorn lease and gaining necessary planning permissions. The health impact delivered from this within many communities is expected to be significant and will shape policy, practice and investment – specifically from research provided and NHS savings achieved.
The building modules begin to arrive on site!
Expansion
To formalise the expansion plan, the charity agreed for a new wholly owned subsidiary to be incorporated. Its role being to focus exclusively on all aspects necessary to bring about the new Centres up to the point of opening to the public – enabling the charity and Daventry Centre to continue with day-to-day operations.
The subsidiary is now incorporated as, Reach for Health Strategic Ltd. It is established with an executive board and strategic partners necessary. The plan now is to engage sponsors and put into place the working area, management and employees, and equipment needed to establish the first phase cluster.
The subsidiary team will have full responsibility and executive board accountability for financial, legal and project management aspects, with robust governance and quality assurance regarding the phased opening of centres – established with an executive chair from the charity’s board of trustees.
Expansion is phased and has been designed around establishing a cluster of five centres within a defined geographic area, targeted upon reaching critical member throughput within 2 years. This means that financially, each cluster is organically self-sufficient and puts no financial burden on the charity or next cluster.
Phase 1 – 2023 & 2024
Phase 1 will provide the proof of concept, ahead of a much more rigorous expansion schedule to establish all five clusters within England.
Phase 1 concentrates on expanding the Daventry Centre by creating an additional wing to house the subsidiary and opening two additional Northamptonshire centres, with two more centres in Warwickshire and Coventry City.
A detailed financial outline and 2-year budget for Phase 1 is completed and available on request.
Associations and Partnerships
The Reach for Health Centre Ltd is a registered Charity, number: 1138302.