In this second blog post we reflect on the learning from initial activities of the Growing Health Together evaluation
See our previous post for further details of Growing Health Together and the evaluation being undertaken.
The first evaluation task for the CHSS research team has involved conducting a ‘mapping exercise’ of the Growing Health Together (‘GHT’) activities and partnerships to explore how the programme is being rolled out locally.
Each of the five GHT ‘places’ in East Surrey has an allocated General Practitioner who is the GHT Primary Care Network (PCN) Lead and facilitates the programme in their area. During April 2023, the CHSS team met with each of the five GP Leads to ask them about how GHT has evolved and the ways in which health creation activities are implemented in their area. Preliminary themes arising from this exercise include:
- Taking time to build and nurture relationships
- Creating connections
- A variety of ways of the establishing needs the community
- Enhanced empowerment of GPs in addition to community members
- Flexibility in terms of the type of support and geographical areas
For the first time in my [long] GP career, I’ve been able to get out into my community rather than firefighting in my consulting room. And I think that opportunity has been transformational for me and really exciting
In addition to the meetings with GP Leads, the research team has gathered details of ongoing groups and activities from the GHT Lead and Project Manager, as well as local health and population data, with the aim of producing supplementary geographical descriptors for each GHT area. This information is currently being assimilated and will shape the next phase of the evaluation, in which three of the five areas will be identified as case study sites to further explore the value and benefit of the programme.
We look forward to providing further updates as the evaluation progresses. You can find out more about GHT on their website.
The CHSS team are collaborating with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS) Primary and Community Health Services team on this evaluation.