Universal Care Plan in Action: Strengthening Frailty and Carer Contingency Planning across London
As the Universal Care Plan (UCP) continues to embed itself in clinical practice across London, new data reveals encouraging progress in supporting personalised, proactive, and coordinated care planning. The following figures highlight how health and care professionals are increasingly using the UCP to record key elements of care, ensuring the right information is available at the right time.
What’s New Since the expanded care plan went live in January?
- 4,800 patients now have a frailty score recorded, following the addition of this feature in the care plan. This is a significant step in identifying those who may benefit from more tailored and anticipatory care.
Supporting Carers and the Cared For
- 93 patients are recorded as ‘is carer’, helping to identify individuals who provide unpaid support to family or friends.
- 4,566 UCPs now indicate that the person ‘has an unpaid carer’, a key factor in understanding the broader context of support needs.
These numbers reflect the growing adoption of the UCP and the collective effort across London to ensure that patients’ preferences and clinical decisions are recorded, respected, and accessible. Two members from the UCP Design Oversight Group share their thoughts:
“It is heartening to see the growing use of the Universal Care Plan to support carer contingency planning, and the positive impact for unpaid carers.
This data demonstrates that many professionals are using the platform to document plans that provide reassurance to unpaid carers – ensuring their loved ones will be supported in the event of a crisis. We are committed to expanding this important area through localised adoption pilots and by engaging social care and our voluntary and community sector colleagues across London.”
Ros Spink, Senior Quality and Patient Safety Manager NHS England London Region
“The inclusion of the Clinical Frailty Scale in the Universal Care Plan is an important step toward more proactive and personalised care planning. By identifying people living with frailty, clinicians can better anticipate needs, coordinate support, and tailor care plans to improve outcomes. It’s positive to see this being adopted in practice, and we look forward to further embedding the UCP as a routine part of care planning for people living with frailty across London.”
Laura Cook, Clinical Programme Lead – Ageing Well, NHS England London Region
As the UCP grows, we are establishing a Clinical Transformation and Advisory Group to set the clinical direction of the programme and ensure we align to regional NHS strategies. This group will be chaired by Dr Agatha Nortley-Meshe, Regional Medical Director for Primary Care and we look forward to sharing developments in due course.
Tomas Ince, Senior Clinical Transformation Manager UCP Programme
NHS App: Be part of the next UCP development
Learning Disability Week: ‘Do you see me?’
Learning Disability Week took place from 16th – 22nd June, with this year’s theme ‘do you see me?’, highlighting the importance of recognising and listening to the voices of people with learning disabilities.
To mark this week, we shared a blog explaining how the UCP is helping to meet the care wishes and needs of people with a learning disability and the ongoing work to increase utilisation. Read it here.
UCP Monthly Report
Urgent care views continue to increase and in May reached over 14,000 views for the first time since the UCP launched!
World Sickle Cell Day
World Sickle Cell Day was on 19th June and the campaign’s theme was ‘Telling it Loud’ inviting everyone to speak up, be heard, raise awareness, educate and amplify what matters. The UCP supports this by giving a voice to sickle cell patients, often when they need it most.
Now, almost 80% of people with the condition who receive care in London have a Universal Care Plan, helping to ensure they get the right and timely care wherever they are in London.
Work continues to ensure that every Londoner with sickle cell has a UCP, so more people benefit from the joined up care it supports. You can read more here.
Dates for the Diary
8th July 1-2pm – Webinar for primary care staff in NCL. We will explain what the UCP is, how to access it and its primary care use case. If you would like to register, please click here.
9th July 1:30-2:30pm – OneLondon Lunch & Learn Webinar: The London Care Record (LCR) – supporting care home staff to provide effective care for residents. Find out how to make the best use of the LCR and access the UCP through it, helping you provide the best possible care for your residents. Register here.
15th July 2-3pm – UCP People with Lived Experience Group.
July – The South East London Palliative and End of Life Care Programme is hosting a series of tea trolley dashes on renal wards to engage staff, increase awareness of palliative care and address misconceptions, with a reminder that advance care planning should be recorded in the UCP. The UCP team will be joining some of the dates. Find out where the tea trolley dashes will be here.