Introducing Rethinking Our Health – a new way of working with communities to support people living with long-term conditions. 

Rethinking Our Health is a new collaboration between Here and The King’s Fund, bringing together communities and organisations across Sussex to explore new ways of supporting people living with multiple long-term conditions. 

Together with partners in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, primary care, and local government, we’ll be focusing on two neighbourhood test sites: 

• Wick in Littlehampton, supported by the Arun Integrated Community Team (ICT), and 

• Hangleton & Knoll in Brighton & Hove, supported by the West Brighton & Hove ICT. 

Why is this needed? 

Long-term conditions (LTCs) are among the most pressing issues in health and social care in the UK. These chronic illnesses require sustained, ongoing management, and an increasing number of people are living with more than one condition. 

This rise in multiple long-term conditions is having a serious and growing impact on individuals, families, communities, the economy, and our health and care services. 

However, formal healthcare only accounts for around 20 per cent of a person’s health outcomes. The remaining 80 per cent are influenced by social factors, health behaviours and the physical environment. This means we need to look beyond traditional ways of working and rethink how people, communities, and professionals across health and other sectors come together to design solutions.

Who we’re working with 

Wick test site partners 
Voluntary Action Arun & Chichester, Arun District Council, West Sussex County Council, Arun ICT 

West Brighton & Hove test site partners 
The Hangleton & Knoll Project, Portslade Health Centre 

What we’re aiming to do 

People with more than one long-term condition often face a tangled web of barriers to managing their health, not only clinical symptoms, but also housing pressures, transport issues, isolation, work stress, or caring responsibilities. 

Rethinking Our Health is about working with communities to design and test new ways of offering support that will: 

• be rooted in the community and built around people’s real lives 

• be clinically backed and co-designed with local professionals 

• recognise and respond to the social and environmental barriers people face 

• help prevent the development of additional conditions 

Initially, we will focus on supporting people living with osteoarthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which are often experienced together. We expect pain and mental health to be important factors in this work, although persistent pain will not be included in the project. 

What we know 

We know that people face a wide range of barriers when it comes to managing their health. These include: 

• social factors such as housing, work, transport and caring responsibilities 

• the combined impact of multiple conditions 

• fragmented services which treat conditions in isolation 

• isolation or a lack of local support 

• limited knowledge, confidence or skills to manage their health 

How we’ll work 

The project will unfold over four phases: 

• Community engagement (May–June 2025): Listening to local voices and experiences 

• Co-design sessions (July 2025): Shaping the new approach together 

• Delivery of the new Rethinking Our Health offer (autumn 2025 onwards) 

• Evaluation of the impact and process (autumn 2025 onwards) 

Our principles 

Everything we do will be underpinned by a shared set of values and principles: 

• Asset-based and community-led: starting with strengths, not just needs 

• Clinically backed, co-delivered: health professionals and communities working together 

• Personalised care: support tailored to each person’s life and goals 

• Equal weight to social and clinical factors 

• Addressing health inequalities head-on 

• Trauma-informed ways of working 

• Generous leadership and open sharing of what we learn 

Stay connected 

 If you would like to know more or get involved, please contact jo.crease@nhs.net.

We will be sharing our learning and progress as the project develops on our blog.

Today we’re publishing the evaluation of Menopause@Work, a programme we co-led with Brighton & Hove City Council to support menopause awareness and action in small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Our intention from the start was to bring expertise out of the clinic and into the everyday situations people live and work in, blending it with local knowledge and community insight to create something truly practical and grounded. 

With the final evaluation now complete, we’re sharing what we’ve learned. 

Key insights from the Menopause at Work report

Online learning, convenient and helpful, alone wasn’t enough. What people valued most were the live events: spaces to talk, connect, and feel heard. 

The programme helped individuals grow in confidence and knowledge, and in many cases led to practical changes at work. But lasting, systemic change remains slow, especially where leadership support or resource is lacking. 

If workplaces want to truly support staff through menopause, they need to move beyond individual action and bring leadership along with them. 

Grounding menopause support in the real world

One of the programme’s core ambitions was to bring clinically informed expertise into the everyday spaces where people live and work. The evaluation shows this mattered. Participants responded most positively to live, discussion-based events that created safe, relatable spaces. By combining expert knowledge with local understanding and real-world context, the programme helped translate information into action. Small, practical changes, like adjusting uniforms or offering flexible breaks, came directly from these conversations. 

We hope this evaluation offers valuable insight for others working to create more supportive, inclusive workplaces. 

Download the full Menopause@Work evaluation here.

If you’re working to make your organisation more menopause-friendly, or curious about how we co-design our projects and services, we’d love to talk: drop us a line at Collab@hereweare.co.uk  

In the space of a week, I attended 3 events that left me with mixed emotions about the future of heath care.

The World Physiotherapy conference in Tokyo is an event which brings together world leaders, researchers and clinicians into the same space to learn and enhance our practice, share stories and most importantly make a difference. 

I can’t help thinking we have missed an opportunity to think radically and lever our collective power and opportunity. The global burden is one that is not going away and the sustainability of healthcare is fragile.  The health burden is increasing and set to rise on a backdrop of an ageing population, and increasing prevalence of major conditions, and where we recognise the influence of the social determinants of health on people’s lives. 

There is overwhelming evidence that changing people’s health-related behaviour can have a major impact on some of the largest causes of mortality and morbidity.

The future of physiotherapy

In my opinion the future role of physiotherapy is one in which society needs something very different from us. The context in which we work will change, and what we do in this context matters. We will need to develop different skills, adopt new roles, work in different environments in collaboration with other professions and across our own specialities. We will need to blur the edges, let go of our identity as we know it, but create a new one that adapts, and is agile. There were glimpses of this, for example Ash James (UK) talked about the need for more generalists and Marjo Maas (Norway) on ‘Preparing Physiotherapists for the Future’, asking not only what we teach but for what world, because that world is rapidly changing.  

I saw the need to justify the professions existence and impact through economic analysis, focusing on single conditions and diseases. We absolutely add value to people’s lives, but we need to be more than just a ‘condition’ and measure our impact beyond a body part. 

The second event was ‘Stronger Things’ an event organised by New Local an independent think tank that brings together public services with a mission to transform and unlock community power.  It conveyed a powerful vision in which community power needs to be built and nurtured from within. The event reaffirmed the importance of relational public services, where trust, inclusion, and empowerment are central and the future lies in partnerships with people and places. 

And lastly the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (MACP) event in Birmingham ‘challenging concepts in MSK’. There was a real sense of wanting to do things differently and working to do just that despite working within the constraints of a system which are industrialised and mechanised and puts its priority on productivity and efficiency above all else. 

The future of healthcare

Treating populations with increasingly complex chronic and lifestyle illnesses requires more care, more wellness behaviours and more health promotion.  

The future of healthcare is one which is much more capable of understanding a person’s context beyond the specific condition they present, recognising the individual as an active participant in their own health outcomes and addressing the social determinants of health. 

Healthcare must embrace relational practice—building trust, time, and collaboration into every interaction. The future of sustainable care lies not in doing more to people, but in working with them. This cultural transformation is essential for meeting the complex needs of tomorrow’s population. 

None of this is new and while there are promising pockets of transformation, we’ve spent too long describing the problem. Now is the moment to shift from conversation to action. The scale of change may feel daunting, but by starting small, building partnerships, and embracing new ways of working, we can unlock momentum. We have the knowledge, the evidence, and the will. What we need now is the collective courage to reimagine care, not as something we deliver to people, but something we create with them. The future of healthcare depends on it. 

At Here, we believe that designing exceptional care means working in true partnership with the people who use our services. In this blog, Health Builder Norman Webster shares how our unique approach puts lived experience at the heart of service design and delivery. 

Designing and delivering exceptional care surely has to include those for whom the care is being designed and delivered? “Do with” rather than “Do to” has to be the way forward to improve outcomes and shift responsibility from clinicians to a shared responsibility with patients. 

Patients and carers are involved as Health Builders in this design and delivery journey at Here.

What is a Health Builder? 

What is a Health Builder, I hear you ask.  

We are a small team of people with various long-term health conditions who work across services at Here, including Sussex MSK Health: Brighton & Hove and West Sussex. We are involved in patient empowerment initiatives like Shared Decision Making and Personalised Care. Our work spans advising on policy documents and public-facing communications, observing clinics to provide feedback for clinicians’ Continuing Professional Development, and helping improve pathways in areas such as stroke aftercare. One of our team members has even provided the voice-over for our informative patient videos.

Holding space in service design 

We are confident in holding our space at the table when important, exceptional care service design conversations happen. We know one another and can speak up for each other in these spaces. We hold regular “Big Conversations” in community settings to gather the views and feelings of our communities. We explore current themes in health care delivery in local communities.  We explore how people currently access our services and what could make the experience smoother and more accessible for everyone. We do this so that we can represent them in the policy and governance decisions as they are made. 

Building accountability into new governance structures 

There is a formal route of reporting our work through the Clinical Quality Oversight Group. This is a new group set up following the creation of the Sussex MSK Health: Brighton & Hove and West Sussex in December 2024. It is vital that, during this period of change within our service, we put patient experience at the heart of building this new MSK service with colleagues from across Brighton & Hove and West Sussex. 

More than a tick-box: meaningful involvement 

The Health Builder team is unique in that we are paid according to NHS guidelines for honoraria and we are involved in areas of work as true partners in creating exceptional care.  We are also unafraid to point out inadequacies in service creation and delivery. We are not simply a group of people with lived experience, wheeled out when “consultation” is required, as part of a tick box exercise. 

Valuing local and cultural connections 

We value community connections and are active members of groups such as Crawley Community Action, Community People, West Area Health Forum and Voluntary Action Adur and Chichester.  

The delivery of services to marginalised groups is important to us. We have facilitated health events with the Gurjar Hindu Indian community, Crawley Islamic Centre and Masjid, West Hove Health Forum and others. Apart from providing on-site health care, we are keen to hear the views of local communities. We provide feedback information via the Clinical Quality Oversight Group. 

Listening, acting and learning through feedback 

Our priority is providing community health and networking events to build long-term and meaningful relationships where those communities feel safe in expressing their health interactions with NHS services. Sometimes these conversations can be difficult, but we value and act upon all feedback through our community engagement efforts. 

One example of this in action is our work to improve stroke pathways. Health Builders collaborated with clinicians and service leads to gather and reflect the real experiences of people who had accessed stroke aftercare services. Through community conversations and targeted engagement, we identified areas where patients and carers felt unsupported, particularly in transitions between acute care and community rehabilitation. Our insights helped to shape clearer signposting, better continuity of care, and more personalised support for stroke survivors and their families.  

Our ultimate aim is to seek out marginalised groups and ensure members of those groups begin to feel that care is accessible and safe for them. 

Why Health Builders matter more than ever 

The NHS has been under immense financial pressure for years. Rising staffing, medicines, energy and fuel costs, a growing maintenance and estates backlog and the post-pandemic situation have tightened the NHS’s purse strings. The people in charge are forced to make tough decisions to balance the books. It is ever more important that patients derive maximum benefit from each interaction with the NHS and that they are treated in the most cost-effective ways possible. 

Making every contact count 

Health Builders provide wrap-around care to people who access our service by welcoming them at CAD and Hub events, supporting them at Peer Support Groups and ensuring that all services and communications are delivered in the most appropriate ways. 

By knowing our communities and understanding their needs through our “Big Conversations” and other activities, we can identify marginalised groups. We make every effort to engage with them to understand their specific needs. We try to make care feel accessible and safe for them. 

The bottom line is that we need to make every contact count in the current health economy. 

By Norman Webster – Health Builder.  

We know people living with multiple long-term conditions is fast becoming one of the defining challenges of modern healthcare.

Despite the prevalence of complex health needs, care systems are still largely designed around single conditions with separate appointments, professionals, and pathways that rarely speak to each other. For the individual, this can feel like navigating a maze of services with no map.

The King’s Fund’s recent piece on clinical coordination puts this issue into sharp focus. It calls for a shift from fragmented models of care to those built around the person as a whole recognising that people don’t live in silos, and neither should their care.

At Here, we’ve been working to build what this looks like in practice. Whether through integrated musculoskeletal services, faster and more compassionate dementia assessments, or data tools that support local systems to act more holistically, we’ve seen the difference it makes when care is designed for real life, not just clinical pathways.

This blog reflects on the themes raised by The King’s Fund and shares some of what we’ve learned as we try to build care around people, not problems.

1: From care pathways to life pathways 

Care that works well for a single condition can quickly become burdensome for a person managing several. Our MSK services in Sussex take a whole-person view—connecting people to physiotherapy, mental health support, community groups, and social prescribing, depending on what matters most to them. 

Crucially, this joined-up approach doesn’t just feel better for patients—it’s more efficient for the system. Avoiding duplication, reducing unnecessary referrals, and helping people access the right support first time leads to better outcomes and lower overall costs. Supporting someone to live well with multiple conditions is not just good care—it’s smart use of resources. 

2. Design with, not for

One of the clearest lessons from our work is that services should be co-designed with the people who use them.

When we partnered with Age UK to deliver a new dementia assessment service, we built it around what people told us they needed: faster answers, fewer handoffs, more clarity and kindness. That feedback shaped everything from the clinical model to the language we use in our leaflets.

The result is a service that feels more personal, more efficient, and more trustworthy.

3. Make the tech work for people, not the other way round

As The King’s Fund rightly notes, good coordination relies on systems that talk to each other—and to the people using them. But all too often, technology ends up serving organisational or system demands rather than patient needs.

We’ve invested in data and analytics platforms that help different parts of the system understand population health and work together. The aim isn’t just efficiency, it’s insight that leads to better, more joined-up decisions.

4. Equity must be built in, not bolted on

People in more deprived areas are more likely to experience multiple long-term conditions—and to face greater barriers in accessing support. Reviewing data with people on the ground tells you where to focus.

By working alongside VCSE collaborators, we’ve created community health days in parts of Sussex where need is high and engagement is low, bringing services directly to people and reducing the friction of navigating formal systems. It’s a small step, but it reflects our belief that access and equity must be considered from the start, not retrofitted later.

5. Relationships matter more than structures

Changing systems is complex. But often, it’s the quality of relationships – between professionals, teams, and organisations – that determines whether care feels joined-up.

In our work, we’ve seen integrated teams flourish when they’re built on trust, mutual understanding, and shared purpose. Creating time and space for professionals to learn from each other and build those connections is just as important as any formal process redesign.

6: Measure what matters – to people and the systems

We’re still too focused on activity and throughput. While these metrics have their place, they don’t capture whether someone feels better, more supported, or more able to manage their health.

At the same time, understanding what matters to people gives us a clearer picture of what works and what doesn’t. That leads to better decision-making, better commissioning, and better value. It means investing in what genuinely helps and scaling back what doesn’t. True efficiency starts with understanding the person, not just the pathway.

Looking ahead

Supporting people with multiple long-term conditions is one of the most complex tasks in modern healthcare but it’s also where some of the greatest gains lie.

When we design care that reflects real life rather than idealised pathways, we unlock better outcomes and better use of resources. Coordinated, whole-person care doesn’t just improve people’s experiences; it reduces duplication, lowers demand on stretched services, and allows professionals to work more effectively.

At Here, we’re learning that care built around complexity doesn’t have to be more complicated. In fact, when we listen to people and work collaboratively across the system, we often find simpler, more sustainable solutions. 

We’re excited to be embarking on a new project with The King’s Fund to explore how a deeper understanding of multiple long-term conditions – and more intentional co-creation with the people living with them – can help shape healthcare that works better for both individuals and the system as a whole. 

Integrated, person-centred care is not a luxury – it’s essential to delivering quality and value in the NHS of the future. 

We’re looking forward to sharing what we learn through our collaboration with The King’s Fund, follow along for open and honest reflections, challenges, and learning as we go. 

Here and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust are delighted to officially welcome Kirsty Coates as Partnership Director for Sussex MSK Health. Kirsty also joins Here’s Enabling Team, bringing a strong track record in service transformation, operational leadership and cross-sector partnership working. 

Kirsty is already well-known to many Here.

As our former Head of Operations, she played a key role in shaping innovative services and led the organisation’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. Since then, she has continued to build experience in senior roles across the NHS and voluntary sector, most recently as Operations Director at Social Tech Trust, where she focused on using technology to drive social impact.

In her new role, Kirsty will work in partnership with colleagues across Here, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and the wider system to lead the development of Sussex MSK Health — an integrated service for people with musculoskeletal conditions across Brighton & Hove and West Sussex. Her focus will be on supporting collaboration, improving outcomes, and ensuring people can access the right care at the right time. 

Kirsty Coates added: “It’s a real pleasure to return to Here at such an exciting and important time. I’m passionate about working in partnership to develop person-centred, sustainable services, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the next chapter of Sussex MSK Health alongside such a dedicated and talented team.”

This Dementia Action Week, the spotlight is on diagnosis, helping people recognise the signs of dementia and take that all-important first step. At Here, we know how important it is that people feel supported not just after diagnosis, but from the moment they’re referred.

That’s why we’ve deepened our partnership with Alzheimer’s Society as part of our work to improve the Memory Assessment Service (MAS) in Brighton & Hove.

Together, we’ve worked to expand our support offer and connect more people to vital support services. From the point of referral, Alzheimer’s Society provides support, practical advice and signposting for people with memory concerns or a diagnosis of dementia and their families.

This partnership complements the work of our MAS team, who continue to offer regular check-ins and What Matters to You conversations. With increasing demand for memory assessments, this joined-up approach has helped us deliver care that is timely, person-centred and grounded in dignity.

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together so far and committed to building on it, so that no one has to face the waiting period alone and everyone accessing our service feels informed, supported and seen.

After more than a decade of visionary leadership, Natalie Blunt is moving on from her role as Managing Director of Sussex MSK Partnership Central and as a member of the Here board. As she steps away, we want to take a moment to reflect on her immense contribution, celebrate the legacy she leaves, and simply say: thank you, Natalie.

Transforming MSK Care at Here

Natalie has been with Here for 15 years, dedicating her career to transforming musculoskeletal (MSK) care both locally and nationally. She has spent the last five years as Director of MSK services, and her expertise, clarity of purpose, and relentless focus on people have made a lasting mark on everything we do.

Leading Sussex MSK Partnership Central

She has been at the heart of Sussex MSK Partnership Central since its formation in 2014, a bold and innovative joint venture between Here and Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. Under her leadership, what began as an ambitious idea has grown into a national exemplar of joined-up, person-centred MSK care for a population of over 1 million people in Sussex.

Championing Whole-Person MSK Health

Throughout her time with us, Natalie has championed MSK health as a vital part of overall wellbeing, not just something to treat, but something to prioritise. She’s driven a whole-person approach, seeing beyond symptoms to the lives behind them. As she often reminded us, “an elbow never walked into a treatment room on its own.” It’s that clarity, always putting people first, that has shaped the service we are so proud of today.

Natalie with Laura Finucane

Standout Moments in Natalie’s MSK Journey

There have been many standout moments along Natalie’s MSK journey with Here.

2015: A National First in Patient Leadership

In 2015, Natalie helped usher in a national first, recruiting a Patient Director. This groundbreaking move placed people with lived experience at the centre of service design and paved the way for our innovative Health Builders Programme.

2019: Award-Winning Excellence

2019 was a year of celebration. The partnership won an HSJ Partnership Award and was rated Outstanding by the CQC, a reflection of the excellence she helped cultivate every day as Deputy MD.

2020: Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the most challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalie led the team to proactively redeploy MSK expertise to support the urgent care system, a testament to her ability to see the bigger picture and act swiftly in the face of crisis.

2022: Publishing The CASE for Change

In 2022, she co-authored The CASE for Change, a landmark publication with Laura Finucane that laid out a compelling vision for excellence in MSK care. Its influence continues to resonate across clinical and commissioning communities alike.

2023: National Recognition for Innovation

And in 2023, Sussex MSK Partnership Central was recognised again; this time with a HealthTech Award, highlighting how innovation and compassion can go hand in hand.

Pioneering Community Appointment Days

One of Natalie’s most celebrated achievements came with the creation of our Community Appointment Days, a new, person-focused approach that made national headlines and is now a model now emulated across the sector.

2024/25: Expanding MSK Care Across Sussex

In 2024/25, Natalie played a key role in developing and launching Sussex MSK Health: Brighton, Hove and West Sussex, expanding our innovative approach to MSK care to serve a population of over one million people.

Natalie at an MSK conference

Leading with Purpose and Courage

Natalie’s leadership has been defined by clarity of vision, fierce advocacy for personalised care, and a deep belief in the power of partnership. She has shown us what it means to lead with purpose and to act courageously.

A Lasting Impact at Here

As a board member at Here, Natalie also brought energy, wisdom and challenge, helping ensure our work stayed connected to our vision and values. Her presence will be deeply missed, but her influence will continue to shape our work for years to come.

Care Navigation/Social Prescribing is a model that enables health and social care professionals to refer people to a range of non-medical services within their community to improve and support social, mental and physical health and wellbeing.

Recognising that people’s health and wellbeing is affected by a range of social, economic, and environmental factors.

Care Navigation takes a holistic approach that enables people to take control of their own health. With the practical and emotional support of a Care Navigator this allows people to identify ways to improve how they are feeling.

How does it work?

Our Care Navigators spend time helping people to focus on ‘what matters’ to them. They assess the needs of each individual and together create a personalised care and support plan. This may involve connecting them to community groups, classes, workshops, or even advisory bodies for legal advice or debt counselling.

Care Navigating success

There is increasing evidence in the success of Care Navigating/Social Prescribing and the impact it has on both individuals and communities.

“In one evaluation, six care navigators from voluntary care organisations worked in integrated health and social care teams across and county. They carried out up to six face to face interviews with an older person, with a unit cost of £42 (compared to £213 per visit for adult social worker). Health related quality of life measures improved by 17%, people needed to use fewer health services and the project was overall cost effective.” ~ Care Navigation: A Competency Framework

“Thank you so much, you’ve helped me to realise there are resources out there for me” – Patient was experiencing homelessness

Is there a difference between Care Navigators and Social Prescribers?

There is no universal definition of care navigation a variety of titles are used, including ‘care navigator (CN)’, ‘social prescriber (SP)’ and ‘link worker’. All these roles provide effective navigation and is a key element of delivering coordinated, person-centred care and support.

Care Navigators are often existing members of staff within Community Services and GP practices. At Sussex MSK Health, our Care Navigators work closely with clinicians, which helps to free up valuable clinical time for addressing physical health needs, while Care Navigators can focusing on non-medical and wellbeing concerns. By providing this additional support patients receive holistic care that extends beyond clinical treatment.

Why have Care Navigators as part of our MSK service?

• Help and support with barriers to appointments.
• Liaise with clinicians/admin teams/clinical teams.
• A chance for patients to unpack, reflect and think about their next steps.
• Help people in multiple pathways within MSK and help make sense of their treatment plans.
• Help stop people falling through the cracks and bouncing in and out of the service.
• There are incredible resources out in the community – directing people more quickly to these can benefit the person.

Many things affect our health and wellbeing. We can all sometimes feel isolated, lonely, or stressed out by work or money. It can also be very difficult dealing with the stress of managing a long-term condition.

We now have a team of 8 people who are helping patients deal with similar concerns every day, creating personalised support plans for our patients giving them access the support and resources they need to help them feel better.

Read more about Personalised Care/ Social Prescribing on the NHS website: NHS England » Social prescribing

Or if you’d like to learn more about our MSK service you can find out more here: Community MSK Services in Sussex – Here

We know that getting a dementia diagnosis can be tough. Waiting lists are long, private options are expensive, and too many people are left without the answers and support they need. That’s why we’re proud to work with  Age UK West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, a trusted organisation dedicated to supporting older people, to make expert dementia assessments more accessible in Sussex.

Why increased access to dementia assessments matters

At Here, we run the Brighton & Hove Memory Assessment Service (MAS), part of the NHS’s vital network of dementia diagnosis and support. We know first-hand how essential these services are and how stretched they can be. Demand is high, and while we continue to innovate within our MAS service, the reality is that the NHS operates with limited finances. This means capacity is constrained, and waiting lists for NHS memory assessments can be long. 

Right now, around 40% of people over 65 with dementia remain undiagnosed in the UK. That means thousands of people in Sussex are navigating life without the right support, missing out on treatment, guidance, and the chance to plan for the future.  An early diagnosis can make all the difference, not just for the person with dementia but for their family and support network, too. It opens the door to practical help, medical care, and a better quality of life.  

This is where alternative options, like our collaboration with Age UK, can make a real difference. By complementing NHS services, we give people more choice, ensuring that more people can get the answers and support they need, without unnecessary delays.

A partnership rooted in care 

Our collaboration combines Here’s clinical expertise in dementia assessment with Age UK’s trusted support for older people.  Age UK WSBH is an independent charity dedicated to helping people over 50 stay independent, informed, and connected. From practical advice and information to social clubs and wellbeing support, their work helps older people make the most of life.  For over a decade, Here has delivered dementia services built on compassion, trust, and person-centred care. This partnership allows us to expand that work, ensuring people feel heard, respected, and supported throughout their journey.

More accessible dementia assessments

As a first step, we have launched The Dementia Clinic, a not-for-profit, paid-for service that offers the highest standards of compassionate care while keeping costs as low as possible. We focus on people, not profit, as two not-for-profit, purpose-driven organisations.  We are committed to making dementia assessments more accessible by: 

• Keeping costs as low as possible while maintaining the highest standards of care. 
• Making assessments easier to access without unnecessary delays. 
• Providing compassionate, person-centred support tailored to each person. 

Our vision 

Our vision is simple: a dementia care system that puts people first. We want to give people control over their care, provide real alternatives to long waiting lists, and reinvest in services that reach even more people. This partnership is a significant step towards making this happen.

We know we can’t fix everything overnight. But by working with partners like Age UK, listening to the people who need these services, and challenging the barriers to access, we can make a real difference. 

If you’d like to learn more about our partnership or working with Here, drop us a line at collab@hereweare.org.uk. If you’re looking for expert dementia support, find out more about The Dementia Clinic.