Over £1 million invested in Parkinson’s services

The Parkinson’s Excellence Network previously announced an additional £2 million in strategic funding over 3 years to improve Parkinson’s services and access to allied health professionals. This funding has been used to continue and expand the scope of pump priming and to launch the Excellence Network project grants scheme.

Pump priming

Between 1996 and 2021, the Excellence Network (through funding from Parkinson’s UK) has pump primed 320 specialist Parkinson’s nurse posts across the UK. Through this process, nurse posts are funded for 2 years with the condition that local commissioners will continue funding beyond that period. In total, this has resulted in an investment of around £8 million into developing and supporting these posts. 

It’s important that people with Parkinson’s have access to the right professionals at the right time to get the right care so last year, the Excellence Network made the decision to extend the pump priming model to include allied health professionals. The Network is now pleased to confirm successful applications for 10 new posts across 7 organisations UK-wide. These new posts consist of 3 new Parkinson’s nurses, 3 occupational therapists, 2 physiotherapists and 2 speech and language therapists. With a total investment of £930,000.

Excellence Network project grants scheme

This scheme supports local, regional and national service improvement projects across the UK that improve the health and care of people with Parkinson’s. This could be developing, testing or rolling out new clinical pathways or technology. It also supports the development of innovative healthcare frameworks, capacity building models and resources, clinical tools or data dashboards.

In its first year, the Excellence Network project grants scheme awarded 2 large and 3 small project grants that will improve services in palliative care, bone health, medication management and group-based physical activity. With a total investment of over £100,000.

Katherine French, Service Improvement Programme Manager said:

"We work very closely with health teams and local commissioners across the UK to address some of the urgent workforce shortages as well as the Parkinson’s service challenges and threats.

"Through our pump priming and project grants scheme, we can work directly with health and care professionals to support great practice to provide excellent multidisciplinary care to people with Parkinson’s.

"We must push for all people with Parkinson’s to have access to the right care at the right time and support projects that improve health and care services."

Looking ahead to 2023

Applications are now open for project grants to improve statutory health or care services for people with Parkinson’s and their loved ones. 

Bids are also welcome for pump priming specialist Parkinson’s nurse or allied health professionals posts. Read the guidance and contact the team for support.