Fantastic social enterprise, Health and Care at Home, is the latest to receive investment of £150,000 from the Health & Wellbeing Challenge Fund (South West) (H&WCF), managed by social impact investment company Resonance.

Health and Care at Home (HACAH) provides private and publicly funded health and care services in the south west, focusing on provision of care for people in their own homes in Mid and West Cornwall (from Wadebridge to Sennan Cove). HACAH has been operational for two years and has ambitions to expand its service to other areas and become the ‘go to’ provider.  

HACAH ensures that the people it works with receive a fully inclusive service and a care package that is tailored to each individual’s needs. This often involves working closely with all the relevant health professionals including GPs, health care practitioners and social services, delivering a nursing or medical care plan, which is then complemented by a social care plan developed with the person themselves, their family and paid practitioners.

The aim is to offer the very best in private home-based care services, enabling individuals to have the highest possible quality of life and lowest dependency on care, whilst reducing reliance on NHS and Local Authority services for people able to fund their own care.  

Clive Acraman of Health & Care at Home said of the investment: “We are delighted to receive this funding which will allow us to improve our infrastructure, build our team and to grow in a controlled, safe way. In three years’ time we aim to be the ‘go to’ provider of Health and Care Services across the County.”

The service that HACAH offers is a vital one, which has a hugely positive impact on each person they care for and support, their families and the communities in which they live. When integrated health and care services are missing, it can cause considerable distress and unnecessarily long stays in hospital. This in turn costs the NHS time and money and can cause a backlog in hospital departments, as delayed transfers reduce the number of beds available for other patients.   

In addition to this high quality person-centred care, HACAH also offers some of the more specialist care services such as Occupational Therapy and Registered Nursing Care required by people with higher-level care needs. This enables people to stay at home and continue as members of their community for longer, reducing hospital admissions and length of stay - providing the option of ‘through care’, preventing people from experiencing the cyclical process of home to hospital, to residential home and back to hospital. It also enables people to receive temporary care packages, such as when visiting the area on holiday.

Leila Sharland, Investment Manager at Resonance, says: “I really admire the ambition of Health and Care at Home. It is taking the concept of person-centred care, developing a unique model for delivery and is now really focusing on making this available to all. The positive stories we’ve seen are testament to a care provider which is dedicated to the best outcomes for everyone – from people receiving care, their families, the staff, and the wider community. We think HACAH can make this work and we are looking forward to watching it grow.”

The Health & Wellbeing Challenge Fund is an impact investment fund established with investment from the Growth Fund and South West Academic Health Science Network (SWAHSN). The Growth Fund is managed by Access - The Foundation for Social Investment and is funded from the Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital. The Fund seeks to make social impact investment more accessible and relevant to smaller social enterprises looking to expand their operations and impact in the South West linked to the broad theme of Health & Wellbeing.