Health and social care information for commissioners
Our services can be tailored to meet your specific commissioning and community needs.
Our approach
The British Red Cross has delivered health and social care services since the NHS was established. We work with commissioners to provide valuable time-limited support to vulnerable people across the UK.
The Red Cross offers person-centred support for adults of all ages. The combination of services we provide can be tailored to meet specific commissioner and health community needs.
We have local teams of highly committed staff and volunteers. They offer quality services that are delivered within our Quality Standards Frameworks to ensure we are supporting people in the best way possible.
- Download our Health Prospectus 2024 (PDF)
- Download our Health Prospectus 2024 - Welsh (PDF)
- Find your local contact for commissioning services.
Some of our health services in England are rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
The services we provide
To help people remain independent or to provide practical and emotional support to people in need, we provide the following services:
Support for frequent users of A&E
Helping people home from hospital and patient transport
Support for high intensity users of A&E
Few people frequently attend accident and emergency (A&E) but they have a big impact on health systems, costing the NHS at least £2.5bn per year.
These frequent attenders or callers typically have a range of physical and mental health conditions, and are significantly more likely to be admitted to hospital than the average A&E user. The Red Cross' service is built around addressing the unmet need of the whole person, meaning they require unplanned care less often.
Find out more about our research on the high intensity use of A&E services or read our summary report (PDF).
Helping people home from hospital
We help transport patients home safely, quickly and effectively through our assisted discharge services. Working across all hospital departments, including A&E, we provide support for up to 72 hours, making sure patients have everything they need to be independent and safe at home.
This service:
- reduces preventable admissions from A&E
- reduces likelihood of readmission
- optimises discharge timescales and patient flow.
Find out more about our research into getting hospital discharge right or read our report (PDF).
Non-emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) and clinical services
Over many years we have built our expertise in supporting discharges and managing patient flow. The Red Cross can work with you to smooth patient flow and reduce peaks in discharge demand through any of our services.
Working together we can reduce system-wide pressure (and budgets), and improve patient care and experience by getting people home safely and on time. As a leader in this field, we are committed to supporting at a hospital trust level and we will not engage in large scale county-wide NEPTS contracts that remove the focus on the patient, hospital and NHS Staff.
The provision of transport is a key enabler in health and social care and we strive to keep that provision local, tailored to individual needs and of the highest quality.
How we can help
We are already embedded onsite at many NHS locations across the UK through our assisted discharge and home from hospital services.
- As a known and trusted provider, we understand the high standards expected. And as a leader in this field, we are committed to supporting at a hospital trust level.
- We know your systems and patients and more importantly – your patients know us.
- We are experts in supporting discharges and managing patient flow. This helps reduce system-wide pressure and budgets while improving patients’ care and experience by getting people home safely and on time.
- Our humanitarian background and focus translate into market-leading patient care and experience. Patients trust us and our brand offers comfort, support and security.
Improving our services
As an organisation working in different areas, we learn and evolve in many ways:
- Colleagues who support people with independent living support our patient transport clinical services (PTCS) training. This enables us to identify and escalate signs of patient vulnerability, deprivation and additional need.
- Our crisis response team influences our approach so we can support you through emergency operations.
- Our support is truly local, with crews recruited from close by to help the community they know best.
- As part of one of the UK’s biggest national charities, we offer high-quality governance, training, reporting and professional support.
Tackling loneliness
Chronic loneliness and isolation can have a serious impact on health and wellbeing. Our research shows that before the coronavirus pandemic, one in four people in the UK often or always felt lonely. Since lockdown, 41 per cent of UK adults report feeling lonelier.
Through strong corporate partnership with the likes of Land Rover, we provide staff and volunteers with the resources they need to reach people in some of the most isolated rural and remote communities across the UK.
Find out more about our research on loneliness or read our report on loneliness during lockdown (PDF).
Social prescribing
Our services help to reduce loneliness through bespoke and highly personalised community based support, to improve health and wellbeing. An evaluation of our community connector social prescribing services found that the approach was both effective in reducing loneliness and cost effective too, with £2.04 of social value created for every £1 invested
Find out more about our research on social prescribing or read our report (PDF).
Support at home
We support people for up to 12 weeks to build their confidence, independence and resilience to remain safely at home, with fewer health and social care interventions. Along with providing practical and emotional support, we build a sustainable plan to ensure longer-term safety. All of this helps prevent hospital readmission.
Support may include help with prescription collection, shopping, transport to medical appointments and help arranging to pay bills.
This service:
- improves resilience and independence
- reduces contact with health and social care services.
Read our report on the difference made by support at home (PDF)
See feedback from people who use our support at home services
Hiring and loaning wheelchairs and commodes
We hire and loan wheelchairs and commodes to people who need them for a limited time to live independently. This can be part of a stand-alone service or an integrated package.
As the biggest lender of wheelchairs in the UK, we can offer commissioners a contracted-out community equipment service.
See feedback from people who use our mobility aids services
For more information about what our mobility aids service can offer:
Find out more about our research on the need for access to wheelchairs or read our reports on maintaining mobility (PDF) and assessing the value of Red Cross short-term wheelchair loans (PDF).
Supporting the ambulance services
The Red Cross provides ambulance services under contract, primarily with the NHS. We offer services at three levels:
- patient transport
- urgent patient transport
- blue light emergency response.
We also provide ambulance services under a Royal Charter during surges in demand, predicted periods of high activity or adverse weather events.
Working closely with commissioners, we help reduce trips to A&E departments and provide supported-discharge services.
See feedback from people who use our ambulance services.
Providing first aid education
If injured people received basic first aid before emergency services arrive, up to 59 per cent of pre-hospital deaths could be prevented. We teach first aid to adults and young people, and also focus on training people who are at a higher risk of experiencing a first aid emergency. First aid training:
- improves resilience for most vulnerable people and communities
- reduces death and serious injury
- reduces preventable admissions to hospital.
Find out more about our research on the importance of first aid education or read our report (PDF).
Get in touch
If you want to learn more about our health and social care services or are interested in discussing a partnership, please contact our senior service managers in your local area from the list below.
London
Zoltan Abbot
Email: zoltanabbott@redcross.org.uk
07725 958 108
South East England
Carole Bayes
Email: carolebayes@redcross.org.uk
South England and Channel Islands
Katie Kelly
Email: katiekelly@redcross.org.uk
Central England
Gary Morgan
Email: GaryMorgan@redcross.org.uk
North England
Chris Thornton
Email: ChrisThornton@redcross.org.uk
Scotland
Robert Noble
Email: rnoble@redcross.org.uk
Wales
Lisa Kenny Gough
Covers: Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Newport, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire and Caerphilly.
Ebost/email: lkenny-gough@redcross.org.uk
Mobile: 07495 293046
Toni Blinston
Covers: North Wales, Powys, Merthyr, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Bridgend.
Ebost/email: tblinston@redcross.org.uk
Mobile: 07704536481
Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man
Paula Powell
Email: ppowell@redcross.org.uk
Mobile: 07738 341031
Wheelchairs and mobility aids
Email: bpdm-mas@redcross.org.uk