www.informationprescription.info
Interim report on the information prescriptions pilot project
The Department of Health (DH) white paper, 'Our health, our care, our say', published in January 2006, made a commitment to improving access to appropriate information for people with health or social care needs. It stated: 'we propose that services give all people with long-term health and social care needs and their carers an 'information prescription'.’
From 2008, information prescriptions (IPs) will be given, in consultation with a health or social care professional, to everyone with a long-term condition or social care need. IPs will guide people to relevant and reliable sources of information to allow them to feel more in control and better able to manage their condition and maintain their independence. IPs will be nationally recognised as a source of key information on services and care that is seamlessly and formally integrated into the care process.
To ensure the successful design and delivery of IPs nationally, DH has recruited 20 sites to test and provide evidence of their effectiveness and their impact on the public, professionals and organisations. The information and momentum built through this piloting phase will be used to develop the final strategy for delivering the full scheme in 2008, when IPs will be rolled out nationally.
The project is being supported and evaluated by a consortium of three organisations – OPM, the University of York and GfK – and overseen by a project board of key stakeholders. The programme of evaluation and learning support activities commenced in February 2007 and will run until March 2008 when the pilot programme will come to a close.
The aim of the evaluation is to assess the overall effectiveness of the pilot programme along with the specific approaches being adopted across the 20 pilots involved in the programme. More specifically, the evaluation will help inform the four main goals of the pilot programme:
- To shape the practical design and delivery of IPs nationally, including how the delivery will be supported nationally at the locality level
- To provide evidence on the effectiveness and impact on the public, professionals, and organisations alike
- To contribute to successful national implementation of IPs by 2008 to people with a long term condition.
- To inform the policy direction, ensuring that the implementation of prescriptions is integrated with other major policy drivers
This is the interim report of the evaluation, covering the developmental stage of the piloting programme. More evidence on implementation and on user responses is covered in the final report. The following documents are available from the DH website:
The documents are:
- Interim report - executive summary
- Interim report - the full version
- Annex to the survey chapter