Going Home from Hospital service evaluation

Full project title: Going Home from Hospital service evaluation

Duration: 4 August 2025–31 March 2026

Project lead for CPHWB: Dr Michele Biddle

Other UWE Bristol researchers:

• Professor Mat Jones
• Dr Emily Dodd
• Dr Hamed Zandian

Funder: Bristol City Council

Going Home from Hospital (GHFH) is part of a wider programme of work in the BNSSG area to improve timely and appropriate social and welfare support for adult patients discharged from hospital. GHFH is focused on service delivery in the City of Bristol and intended to draw upon the knowledge and expertise of local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) agencies to add value to the existing work of NHS and Adult Social Care (ASC) teams.

GHFH is a VCSE service providing social and welfare support services such as benefits information and advice, housing information and advice, and buddying and social connection activities. The project is led by Age UK Bristol (AUKB) with locality-based delivery partners Southmead Development Trust (SDT), Wellspring Settlement and Knowle West Health Park (KWHP). The two lead hospitals are Southmead Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary. GHFH staff work as part of multidisciplinary teams alongside hospital, local authority and Sirona staff in the two hospital-based Transfer of Care Hubs.

AUKB employ GHFH Link Workers who connect patients to a wide range of services to help with their practical, social or emotional needs. Crucially, these Link Workers refer patients to Community Link Workers (employed by SDT, Wellspring Settlement, and KWHP) to provide onward and locally tailored support relating to neighbourhood activities.

An evaluation of GHFH is being sought to help inform future service development in Bristol and the surrounding area. UWE Bristol’s rapid evaluation in early 2025 found that GHFH is linked to a wide range of anticipated outcomes for service users, including improved mental wellbeing and reduced mental ill health post-discharge. Findings also indicated benefits in terms of welfare/financial support, housing rental support, and home decluttering/deep clean services. An initial cost-benefit assessment showed a full return on investment to Bristol City Council and ASC over a one-year period. However, there were important limitations to this evaluation given the data availability and the opportunity to validate findings through a more comprehensive analysis. 

Therefore, this piece of work aims to undertake an enhanced evaluation of the implementation and impacts of GHFH, focussing on the perspective of ASC services in Bristol, but also including the perspectives of service users and carers, the wider community, the VCSE sector, and NHS providers.

Objectives:

1. To evidence a range of outcomes of GHFH from the perspective of service users and other key interested groups.
2. To understand how and why GHFH may be producing results from the perspective of service users (and family members/carers), practitioners, and wider stakeholders.
3. To assess the costs and benefits of GHFH (in terms of social value) to inform the good use of public resources.
4. To inform learning and the enhancement of services for people leaving hospital, their communities and wider stakeholders.

Initial evaluation report anticipated to be available at the end of November 2025, with a revised report available at the end of March 2026.

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Michele Biddle (michele.biddle@uwe.ac.uk) or Professor Mat Jones (matthew.jones@uwe.ac.uk).