Following on from the successful Discharge Summit in March 2023 there is an enthusiasm to continue to work together to share great practice and continue to improve.

This was the catalyst to create our Discharge and Safe Transfer of Care Collaborative which is an active community of interest for all people across the NENC system to come together in an online space with a common purpose to improve transfer of care by:

• sharing knowledge and learning around all things related to transfer of care - such as ideas, solutions, intelligence, and data
• identifying new areas for improvement and spread what is already working in some areas
• connect people together to build relationships to provide mutual support, problem solving and knowledge sharing

This collaborative is for anyone with an interest in improving transfers of care in the North East and North Cumbria – including all partners in our system, those with formal or informal roles, regional and national experts and those with lived experience

At our collaborative meeting in October, we were joined by Catherine Reay and Rachel Daurat, System Co-ordinators at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust who presented 'Community focused care – how working together and education enhances the patient journey'. You can find a recording of this presentation below:

At our last collaborative meeting, Kerry Evans spoke to us about the National NHS & Care Volunteer Responder Scheme and challenged us to think differently about increasing capacity to support discharge. Catherine Huby (Regional Discharge Lead - North East & Yorkshire, NHS England) provided a short update from the region. Kelly Coulter (Senior Manager - Personalised Care Group, NHS England) spoke to us about personal health budgets for discharge.