About Frailty360
Frailty360 is an innovative frailty training programme that uses a unique set of resources and an immersive approach to education to deliver key learning objectives in frailty and integrated person-centred care.
A brief history
In 2015, health and social care workforce leaders in Nottinghamshire commissioned Fusion48, in partnership with the Primary Care Development Centre to develop the Frailty & Supported Self-Care Toolkit and training programme.
The initial focus of the programme was:
- Enabling supported self-care;
- Integrated assessment;
- Multi-professional and multi-agency learning and working;
- Consistent education and training standards;
- Promoting learning through innovation.
The training and toolkit were shaped by older people with frailty and professionals, through:
- Multi-professional, cross-organisational ‘Expert Advisory Panel’ and ‘User Group’, including local stakeholders and external experts
- A small group of older people with frailty, their families and carers.
The initial programme received excellent feedback and achieved a 33% increase in participant’s understanding of frailty and a 27% increase in confidence in supporting older people to self-care in follow up evaluation. This included senior and experienced cohorts.
Developments
The programme and associated resources have continued to evolve based on extensive feedback from over 2,000 participants from hundreds of different organisations across all sectors of health, social care as well as the wider public and voluntary sectors.
The content of programme has also been extended and further developed to reflect deployment across a range of settings and local areas in the North West, North East, Midlands, South Coast and London.
The programme has also incorporated new national guidance and evidence, including NICE guidance on Multimorbidity, the introduction of Routine Frailty Management into the Core GP Contract, and NIHR evidence reviews.
During 2018, further updates have been made to align with the HEE/Skills for Health Frailty Core Capabilities Framework which has itself been shaped by the innovative resources developed as part of the programme.
Key innovations
Frailty Fulcrum
Fusion48’s Frailty Fulcrum is a multi-dimensional model which highlights the importance of balancing vulnerabilities with sources of resilience. It has been developed as an animation and featured in a guest blog by Dr Dawn Moody for NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/dawn-moody/
FrailtySIM - the virtual reality frailty experience
FrailtySIM has also been developed from initial prototype to a complete immersive learning experience through funding from Ufi Charitable Trust as a Voctech 2016 project https://www.ufi.co.uk/projects/voctech-seed-projects-2016
Frailty Toolkit
The Toolkit is a web-based application designed to provide quick and easy access to a range of frailty-related resources. It brings together learning resources with practical guides and tools and has a section for localised Directory of Resources.
Underpinning principles
In addition to the innovations of the Frailty Fulcrum, FrailtySIM and the Frailty Toolkit, there are three underpinning principles that Frailty360 promotes: Person-centred approaches; Maximising and supporting an individual’s independence; and Multi-disciplinary integrated working.
Person-centred approaches
The real-life stories of Nirmala, Baldev and Victor are used to enhance understanding and enable participants to apply their knowledge and analyse relevant situations and scenarios.
Further case studies support specific elements of the training, whilst participants are also encouraged to apply the tools to their own case examples or current situations.
Maximising and supporting an individual’s independence
The Supporting Independence Care Planning template provides a structured approach to understanding what is important to the individual and then exploring what is helping them as well as getting in the way of the person doing what they would like to be able to do. Taking a positive ‘can do’ strengths-based approach it encourages those involved in supporting older people living with frailty to apply the principles of empowerment, motivation and capability, whilst also exploring the full range of local capacity to support the person (including family, friends, local community).
Multi-disciplinary integrated working
The vast majority of the training has been delivered to multi-disciplinary groups, with participants frequently coming from different local organisations. The design of the sessions aims to encourage collaboration and integrated working, as well as providing opportunities for individuals with different backgrounds to network and gain insight into other parts of their health and care systems.
Whilst the training will benefit single discipline teams from one organisation, the impact is even greater when events are run with more diverse local groups.
You can read our tips for designing cascade training here.