Abstract

Context:
The national bundle of care for children and young people with asthma requires health and housing to work in partnership to improve health outcomes for children with asthma.
Walsall Housing Group (whg) is the main provider of social housing in Walsall (22,000 homes)
The issue:
Asthma affects 1 in 11 children and can be fatal if not well controlled. A landmark case, resulting in the death of a child, has shown that asthma prognosis is particularly impacted by environmental factors such as housing.
The problem:
Walsall is a deprived area within the Black Country Integrated Care System where 52% of residents are within the CORE20PLUS population. Rates of admission to hospital in Walsall for children with asthma are amongst the highest in England.
Strategy for change:
ACEing Asthma is a health and housing partnership project comprising:
• Proactively identifying children with asthma in whg properties,
• Working together to optimise asthma control
• Harnessing the power of social prescribing to support self-management
• Mitigating housing and wider socio-economic risks
The intervention is delivered by whg’s team of Community Champions and Social Prescribers who themselves are social housing customers with lived experience of health inequalities. They are trained and supported by children’s asthma practitioners and form a human bridge between families and local services. A pathway with the hospital is established and the children’s asthma team support communications with primary care.
Improvement measures:
This project monitors referrals and delivery of the intervention, home surveyor assessment and priority repairs, and families rehoused or provided with wider support (see table 1)
Next steps:
We are establishing pathways with general practice and school nursing teams to enable us to widen the reach and impact of this project
Messages for others:
Effective partnership work between health and housing requires shared understanding and intentions.