Category: Ageing Well

Oomph! stands for ‘Our Organisation Makes People Happy’: Martin can vouch for that. He’s a care home resident who recently joined Oomph! on a visit to Brooklands Auto Museum, bringing back memories of a 40 year career in auto journalism.

“It was a wonderful day,” he said afterwards.

For Nesta Impact Investments, a shareholder in Oomph!, the impact on Martin’s mental and physical wellbeing was a key part of its decision to keep investing in the business.

Martin’s not alone in rating the service; leading regional care groups including WCS Care – one of the very few providers to have five homes recognised as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission – are among others jumping on board when outings start running from April.

Nesta Impact Investments made its third investment in the business in this £1.5 million round

It will enable the company to rollout its radical £4 million new excursion offering to individuals in care.

We first invested in the business in 2013 and were delighted to be joined in the latest round by Mike Parsons, founder of Barchester Healthcare, and The Care and Wellbeing Fund.

Dedicated to enhancing the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of older adults, Oomph! has already had tremendous success training staff in care homes and community settings to deliver outstanding activities and exercise for older adults.

There’s strong evidence of the impact Oomph! has on people’s lives. Oomph!’s recent impact report shows that those taking part in Oomph! exercise classes say their quality of life has improved and services have seen a 138 per cent increase in uptake, with 78 per cent of care home staff reporting a significant impact on job satisfaction.

We were attracted by Oomph!’s innovative and scalable approach to bringing health and wellbeing benefits to older people

Innovation in the area of the leisure and health sector in which Oomph! operates has historically been slow but will be key to solving one of society’s biggest challenges – how we provide good quality care to an increasing older population. The investment forms part of our strategy to invest in businesses improving health and wellbeing outcomes in the UK, especially for older people and disadvantaged groups.

 

Oomph!’s excursion service – Oomph! Out & About – will put regular and tailored excursions within reach of any care home across the country. Homes that organise outings themselves will benefit from up to three times more trips for half the cost, according to analysis by Deloitte. The service will provide up to six trips a month for a flat fee, starting from £160 per excursion. It is currently piloting with several care homes in Surrey and Hampshire, and will roll out nationally from April.

Completing this substantial investment round is a key success for Ben Allen, CEO and founder. “We know that keeping care home residents active and connected to their local communities is vital to their wellbeing,” he said, “but organising and affording this is a real issue for the industry.

“This funding allows us to rollout our model, which revolutionises out-of-home activity provision and makes it possible for any care home across the country to access a fantastic programme of meaningful trips.”

So we’re delighted to continue supporting Oomph!, and believe that this success, coupled with the financial success of our investment in the company, will prove a winning formula.

Find out more about Nesta Impact Investments
For more information on Out & About contact hello@oomph-wellness.org or call 0203 601 6363

– See more at: http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/out-and-about-why-were-investing-oomphs-excursion-service#sthash.VZnTIslp.dpuf 

 

What do Olive’s improving stiff joints have to do with an exit valuation? How does Norman’s trip to Burnley FC relate to an internal rate of return?
The answer: for the companies in the Nesta Impact Investments portfolio, it is their impact on people’s lives that drives financial success.

Both Olive and Norman are stars in the latest impact report produced by Oomph!, a company dedicated to enhancing the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of older adults. The report sets out the tremendous success that Oomph! has had over the last year training staff in care homes and community settings to deliver outstanding exercise and activity programmes. Investing in wellbeing really does deliver outstanding results for older adults and their carers. Those taking part in Oomph! exercise classes say their quality of life has improved and services have seen a 138% increase in uptake, with 78% of care home staff reporting a significant impact on job satisfaction.

For Nesta Impact Investments seeing that Oomph! is having a demonstrable impact on the lives of older people is as important to understanding Oomph!’s long-term value as seeing a strong balance sheet. We look to invest in organisations, like Oomph!, where impact and business model are completely aligned. Oomph! attracts and retains its clients because its energetic, fun approach delivers real results.

The ability to demonstrate these results will be core to its success. Parita Doshi, Head of Impact at Oomph!, explains that in an environment where their clients are under cost pressure “helping to convincingly communicate that their investment is delivering meaningful results is crucial for retaining clients as well as attracting new partners. Producing an impact report helps bring to life the breadth of impact that we have whether it’s for older adults or those that care for them.”

So it’s not just having an impact that counts, demonstrating that impact and communicating is important too. This report from Oomph! is one of the best examples of communicating results we have seen in the sector.

We encourage all of our portfolio companies to publish data on their impact (all report privately to us): this is important market information with the potential to increase value. What might look like nice stories intended to give the reader a brief glow before moving onto the financials is in reality the best indicator of the health of our investment.

And what about an impact report for Nesta Impact Investments? Watch this space…

Lucy Heady, Impact Director, Nesta Impact Investments 

Dementia is one of the biggest – and fastest growing – challenges facing our society. As more people develop the disease, there is a growing need for new innovation in the care and support for people living with dementia and their carers.

Today we are publishing a paper that explores the role that impact investment can play in developing and scaling products to improve the quality of life of people with dementia. At Nesta Impact Investments, we have been focusing on dementia as an important part of our ‘Ageing Well’ area of interest, and we believe that there is both the opportunity and the need for businesses, charities and social enterprises to contribute to the market.

Why is it important?

Dementia currently affects over 850,000 people in the UK and 44 million people worldwide. In this country, one in three people aged over 65 will die with some sort of dementia and the disease costs the UK economy £26 billion a year – more than cancer, strokes and heart disease combined.

There are some encouraging developments, such as the recent pledge from the UK Government to invest £300 million in dementia research over the next five years. But there is still a significant gap in between the rising demand and the current provision of – and innovation in – services and support.

This is where impact investing comes in

There is increasing recognition of Dementia and it’s impact on individuals, society and the wider economy.  International efforts are being focused on raising awareness and research on medical advancements that will help to address the issue in the future.  

We believe that social ventures can play an important role in helping to fill the gaps in provision and support that currently exist. Instead of focusing on medical advancements and the more macro issues, our paper explores the role that entrepreneurs, social innovators and investors can play in helping to address the wider challenges of the condition.

In particular, the paper looks at the role of these groups in four areas:

1. Support with navigating the system
2. Support with independent living
3. Access to non-pharmacological therapy
4. Support for carers

Our research found that there is some amazing work being done by early-stage ventures in all of these areas. Examples range from a project – Dementia Dog – which trains assistance dogs for people living with dementia, to an app called Jointly, which creates a network of carers where advice can be shared.

Whilst there are lots of examples of great innovations in the area, many of them need the right support to grow and flourish, and this is where we believe impact investors have a role to play, on two levels: first, by providing capital to support the growth of effective products, tools and services, and second, by supporting the evaluation of these in a way that contributes to the growing body of evidence of what works and what doesn’t.

Our recommendations

So, how is this going to happen? Whilst increasing funding has rightly been directed towards research, innovation in a broader range of areas will be needed to support those who live with the disease. For innovators, investors and policymakers to have an impact, we are recommending the following:

• Products and services that support the individual needs of people living with dementia should be developed and scaled
• Impact investors should target and exploit opportunities to support and scale innovative ideas in this emerging market
• The development of products and services to tackle dementia needs more proactive support from government, policymakers, charities and healthcare professionals
• More evidence is needed to tell us what is most effective in supporting people with dementia to live independently and to manage their symptoms

We’re keen to hear from you, whether you have a comment on the future of dementia care or know of an innovation that could improve the quality of life for people with dementia. Tweet us @nestaimpact or email us at impactinvesting@nesta.org.uk.

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By Eibhlín Ní Ógáin and Katie Mountain

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics in February show that over half of adults in the UK report some feeling of loneliness whilst 10% feel lonely all, most or at least half of the time.

Meanwhile, charities have been bringing more attention to the issue, with Macmillan Cancer Support recently highlighting widespread loneliness among cancer sufferers and the Church Urban Fund reporting an increase in loneliness in recent years.

At Nesta Impact Investments, our interest in ageing makes loneliness very relevant to our work; it’s widely accepted that loneliness disproportionately affects older people, whether it be due to immobility, the death of family members and friends or leaving the workplace.

But what exactly does loneliness do?

The effects of being lonely

Loneliness has an obvious impact on people’s lives. Of those reporting some loneliness in the ONS survey, nearly half felt “left out of society” whilst 32% felt what they do in their life is “not worthwhile”. Apart from affecting immediate quality of life, studies have also linked it to depression, anxiety and reduced mobility, claiming that it has the same effect on mortality rate as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

But there’s a wider impact on society too. For example, people who are lonely are almost twice as likely to visit their GP and to develop dementia in the following 15 years. This illustrates the wider pressure put on public services if loneliness is left untackled.

So how can we tackle it?

You’d think something like loneliness would be easy to solve. It doesn’t rely on innovation in medicine or developing high cost technology. All it requires is meaningful human contact. But any effective response also requires innovative ways of organising people and reaching those most in need of contact, and there are a growing number of projects that are trying and succeeding.

Casserole Club is a good example of a project tackling loneliness. Set up by FutureGov – one of our portfolio companies – Casserole Club matches socially isolated older people (‘diners’) with neighbours who love to cook. Once matched, the cooks take a plate of home-cooked food round to their diner. They can have a chin-wag at the door, or if they fancy they can invite them in whilst they eat, and it may turn into a regular thing.

The scheme has had a significant impact on social connectivity of the diners, with a majority of them saying Casserole Club has affected their social life and many feeling more socially connected as a result. Part of Casserole Club’s success comes from the effort they put into finding the people who would benefit from it most. It’s partnerships with other organisations helps reach the most socially isolated older people.

Another great example is GoodGym. GoodGym gets people active whilst helping them do good in their community. If you turn up at a group run, you can be given a community-orientated mission or make a commitment to drop in on a socially isolated older person on your travels, keeping others connected whilst keeping yourself fit.

People don’t have to be physically isolated to feel lonely.  Loneliness can still occur when you are living in a community or care home. Oomph! Wellness, for example, aims to (among other things) increase the social interaction of residents in care homes through delivering fun and interactive classes. 88% of care home staff reported Oomph to have a significant effect on improving social interaction within their home.  This can help to can tackle or even prevent loneliness.

See? Although the act of tackling or preventing loneliness may be simple (it can be as simple as dropping in on someone who is socially isolated), to create a scalable and impactful response to loneliness requires creativity both in the way you enlist the community to join in and in the way you find the people most in need. This kind of creativity and innovation is an important part of what we look for at Nesta Impact Investments.

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By Daniel Kraemer – Nesta Impact Investments

The BBC reported over the weekend that one in five care homes in the UK are failing to meet national standards for care. The news comes at a time when the care sector is under increasing scrutiny, with news last month that the care budget has been cut by a fifth over the last decade. It’s a worrying time in the spotlight for the care sector, but it also provides an opportunity to look at how care can be improved through innovation.

The BBC story is full of horror stories such as residents being washed in cold water or homes smelling of urine. But the quality of care extends much further than these obvious failures. For example, at the heart of NICE guidelines on the quality of care for older people in care homes is a requirement for participation in ‘meaningful activity’. Engagement in meaningful activity is essential to the mental – and often physical – well-being of care home residents. Inspection criteria from the Care Quality Commission include the requirement for meaningful activity as part of their new guidance for providers; only last month the CQC judged a care home in Dorset to be failing, with criticism focusing on the lack of “stimulation through encouragement to follow interests or take part in meaningful social activities.”

Providing ‘meaningful activities’ can mean a lot of things, and should make care providers look towards innovative approaches to the problem. Oomph! Wellness – one of our portfolio companies – offers just that. Oomph! provides specially designed chair based exercise to care home residents, training care home staff to deliver fun and interactive classes that have been shown to increase the social engagement of residents and boost their mental and physical wellbeing. Hallmark, Brighterkind and Ideal Care Homes are at the forefront of adopting such innovations to improve the quality of life of their resident. 

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“Oomph! stands for Our Organisation Makes People Happy! and that’s what we and our hundreds of partner care homes nationally are committed to doing every single day. Our exercise and group activities have been shown to improve the quality of life of residents, staff and visitors to ensure that care homes are places where older adults can express their personality, rediscover their passions and achieve their goals.“

Ben Allen, founder and CEO, Oomph! Wellness

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The best thing about Oomph! is that its effects are multi-faceted. For example, 88% of Oomph! instructors reported a significant or very significant impact on residents’ social interaction in the last quarter of 2014, whilst 83% reported the same on mental stimulation of residents and 64% on physical mobility. And that’s not all. Activities such as those provided by Oomph! trainers have a wider impact on the culture and atmosphere of the care home, with 87% of instructors reporting a significant or very significant improvement in their job satisfaction since they have been providing Oomph! sessions.

There is a long way to go in tackling the care crisis. Oomph! is a great example of the impact that innovative new solutions can have in improving quality of care and, importantly, quality of life of residents and staff. 

 

Read more about our investment in Oomph! Wellness here. 

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By Katie Mountain – Nesta Impact Investments

FutureGov is a for-profit business, but we work with public sector and social organisations. So, Impact Investment meets our mission as a business, bridging the two worlds of profit and social good. With investment more broadly, we’d used grant funding to prototype and create proof of concepts for our products. But to grow these products and to build continued impact, this type of investment gives us the opportunity to; scale, helps shape business strategy and brings a board of advisors that enables us to grow and invest back into future products.

What was raising the investment like?

Investment came in three stages. We had initial conversations with Nesta Impact Investments about the possibility of investment and what kind of shape our business needed to be in. We got some really good, early advice from them and this helped us gear up for the next levelof conversation with investors.

It’s not a short process and the next stage came about 9 months out, where we had a more serious conversation to make sure our approach was in the right ball park. We asked ourselves: how do we land this investment and is our business capable of being invested in?

Nesta gave us really strong support to help us shape our business strategy, get our business plan right and start looking at our numbers to articulate value to investors. Even if we hadn’t got the investment, this process alone would have added massive business value.

The final stage was all in the detail, where we were trying to get the investment through and signed off. This is generally a straightforward process, once you’re in the orbit of an investor and they’ve told you they’re interested. 

What comes next? What happens after you’ve got the investment?

Unlike most people would imagine, you don’t just land a large investment and get to spend it on green M&Ms and fast cars. You have a very robust business plan in terms of where money is spent and every penny counts.

So, we’ve been getting the board of advisors in place, which we’re lucky enough to have Nesta Impact Investments on. We’ve been ramping up recruitment and getting core operational staff in place, such as a CTO and COO. We’ve also moved offices to a space that chimes well with the company and makes us more professional.

Next, it’s a matter of working meticulously through the business strategy and looking to deliver on the targets within the plan.

So, if you’re looking for impact investment what should you consider?

• Be clear on your vision and how it relates back to a money making business venture – who are your customers and what does realistic growth look like with or without investment?
• Meet as many money people as possible and go with those who get your vision but who are also generous with their advice in how to get yourself investment ready (and listen!)
• Get your admin house in order early – IP agreements, accounts up to date and contracts in place

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By Dominic Campbell – FutureGov
This blog was originally published on Real Business
Read the original blog here

This month made the fifth investment from our impact fund – into FutureGov.

FutureGov is transforming public services by using elegantly designed technology to improve local government services in areas of high importance, cost and risk such as child protection or social care. Nesta has been working with FutureGov for a number of years throughout the different stages of its journey.

Nesta Impact Investments has now made an investment of £750k to support FutureGov to really scale up its products and services across the UK.  Here’s a little bit about why we think this is such an exciting investment….

What do FutureGov do and what’s their impact?

FutureGov designs digital products that improve public services.  Read more about it here.  One of the best things about FutureGov is that its tools and products have all been created in response to an identified social need, and developed with a user centred approach to their design.

Its first product Patchwork was developed in response to the Baby P crisis.  The crisis brought to light the need to improve communication between practitioners working with a vulnerable child.  FutureGov worked with front line staff to design a solution that would work for them in practice – putting an effective tool in the hands of people who can make a difference.

Why was FutureGov a good investment?

Nesta Impact Investments is seeking to back great entrepreneurs with a passion to solve social problems. FutureGov’s founders, Dom and Carrie, are exceptionally talented yet modest individuals.  They know how to use their talents to achieve positive impact, through product innovation but also motivating other people to change their practice.  They also know the limits of their own abilities and are open to bringing other people’s views on board.  Exactly the kind of entrepreneurs we want to work with.

We see huge potential for FutureGov to increase the scale of use of its products and services and therefore to achieve real and lasting impact in the UK and, overtime, internationally.  Public services are facing challenging times; experiencing increased demand for services while at the same time having to implement steep budget cuts.  The sector urgently needs to find ways to improve services and deliver ‘more for less’ – and that’s what FutureGov’s approach can deliver.

FutureGov’s products address big social needs, such as how we address the issue of loneliness among our older population, and how we provide the best care possible to society’s vulnerable children.  These issues are prevalent across all of the UK, making FutureGov’s offering highly relevant to all local authorities.

What is the investment for?

Our investment will allow FutureGov to scale up what it has already developed.  The Patchwork and Casserole products are already being used in a number of local authorities in the UK and internationally.  Our investment will help the FutureGov team reach more councils and therefore more people.

But the ambition goes much further than that.  There is a pipeline of really exciting products coming through, addressing issues such as helping people to understand and discuss mental health issues, helping people and families manage their personal finances, and much more.

Watch this space!

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By Katie Mountain – Nesta Impact Investments

When I started working with the Nesta Impact Investments team I was expecting to be challenged by the jargon that went with social investment and de-mystifying it. I was expecting to work with social entrepreneurs that were more used to giving me their ‘elevator pitch’ than the stories of the people they ultimately help.

What I wasn’t expecting was to learn something new about dementia, a subject that has remained close to my heart since my grandmother, Evelyn, developed the disease many years ago. As a journalist that experience had led to my investigating the woeful lack of funding for specialist dementia care in our care homes and putting government ministers on the spot. So I didn’t think there was much you could tell me that I didn’t already know.

But last night at an event we held for one of our social investments, Oomph! (Our Organisation Makes People Happy!) I learnt that the very way we speak to people suffering from dementia can make a huge difference to the way they respond. This was not so much to do with speed but the actual length of sentences. I found out that in recent research many older people with dementia find it hard to cope with sentences of about eight words. In fact, for many understanding sentences of over four words can be tough. I wish I had known this when it came to talking with my own grandmother, who sadly died several years ago.

With older people and dementia it is simple things like this that can make such a difference and Oomph! get this. They also get that older people want to have fun. One of my grandmother’s favourite things was singing and it was a way to connect with her. Hence, when Oomph! do their exercises in care homes it’s to fantastic music that helps to engage people.

We need a new approach to working with and caring for older people in our care homes. One thing I found when I did several programmes on this topic for the BBC was that when you mention dementia it’s amazing how many people tell you about their own experience. We are well aware of the problems as a society and now it’s time to not just find the solutions but act on them.

We need more social entrepreneurs like Ben from Oomph! and more investment that will help them scale up their ideas and services. Even a cynic like me can see it can have an impact and change lives.

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By Gemma Davidson 

Today London will host the first G8 summit on dementia – an event dedicated to developing co-ordinated international action to tackle dementia globally.

Dementia currently affects more than 800,000 people in the UK.  1 in 3 over 65’s will die with some sort of dementia.   And, it’s a growing problem. New statistics released by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) last week reported that 44 million people worldwide now have dementia, and  this is expected to reach 135m by 2050.

These numbers are staggering.  According to the Alzheimer’s Society dementia is now the most feared health condition in over 55’s and costs the economy £23 billion a year, more than cancer, stroke or heart disease combined.

Today’s G8 summit is an important step in starting to think about how we address the issue and will hopefully lead to meaningful action that will have a long term impact.

So what can we do?

Research

After more than a century of research into dementia there is still much we do not know about the condition and how (or if) it can be cured.  This makes dementia one of the most important fields for medical research.  Some positive developments are happening, for example,  Kings College are making progress on developing diagnosis tests and treatments for the disease.  David Cameron has today announced the UK will aim to double its annual funding for dementia research to £132m by 2025 – a positive sign, but this is still only a quarter of what is spent on cancer research in the UK.

While there is (currently) no cure for dementia, research suggests it can be prevented and the symptoms slowed down.  Those involved in this space will be all too familiar with the‘use it or lose it’ advice offered by experts.  We know that keeping active has a positive effect on reducing the risk of dementia and managing the cognitive decline.  More recent research shows that keeping physically active also has a positive impact on cognitive ability, which innovative organisations such as Oomph are helping to do.

Early intervention

Many people think dementia is a normal part of ageing, but it’s not.  Dementia is a chronic disease which affects the brain and can lead to loss of memory, difficulty with language, impaired reasoning and a change of personality.

Prevention and early intervention are key.  Currently, less than half of those living with dementia have a diagnosis.  We need to raise awareness and understanding of dementia by putting accessible and actionable information in the public’s hands.  Campaigns such as Dementia Awareness Week and Dementia Friend are working to raise awareness and organisations like Neighbourhood Return are encouraging community action.  We need to support such organisations and build on their momentum so that people have the knowledge to recognise and manage the disease.

Investing in social innovation  

The need for innovation in ageing is well recognised.  A lot of the current effort is directed towards macro issues: medical advancements, the redesign of the pension welfare.

But some of the key areas that social innovators and investors could help address (and some already are) include social issues, such as how we:

• engage older people and provide opportunities to stay socially connected and active for as long as possible;
• enable people with dementia to live independently for longer;
• enable people with dementia to lead a more fulfilling daily life; and
• make things easier for the carers of people with dementia.

This is a field ripe for social and digital innovations.  There is huge opportunity here for developing solutions that help people live better with dementia.   As impact investors, we aim to identify and support such innovations to grow so that they can reach as many lives as possible.  Importantly, we need to work together to evaluate the impact of these solutions so that so that we can contribute to the growing body of research on what interventions work.

We look forward to seeing what comes out of the G8 Summit today.  With co-ordinated  and systemic action hopefully the landscape will look much different in ten years’ time.

As ever, we would welcome your views and a chance to talk with others who are working in this space.  Contact us on impactinvesting@nesta.org.uk

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Katie Mountain – Nesta Impact Investments

“It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”

These were John McCain’s thoughts after five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.  During this time John was regularly beaten and tortured and denied any medical treatment for his injuries and chronic health conditions.  But it was the two years he was kept in isolation in a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cell, that were one of the most harrowing experiences of all.

We are by nature social creatures.  The damaging effects of loneliness are well documented. A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse.
Now isolation is a huge problem among our older population. Nearly 1 in 5 older people are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week; and for 1 in 10 it’s less than once a month.  Half of all older people in the UK, about 5 million, say the television is their main company.

This issue is not going to go away.  Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has last week highlighted the “problem of loneliness that in our busy lives we have utterly failed to confront as a society”. If anything, with this population growing in size and our state budget shrinking, it is going to get worse. Over 70% of councils only offer homecare services to those with ‘substantial or critical needs’. Only last week the charity, Leonard Cheshire, found that many people only received 15 minute care visits, often for restricted only to essential care such as being washed, dressed and given breakfast.

The state is struggling to cope and we need to find new ways of meeting this need.  When I think about it, it strikes me as such an unnecessary problem – we know what causes loneliness and it wouldn’t take a huge shift in policy for us to be able to engage and communicate with our older community.

So what needs to happen?

Elsewhere in UK life we already have and use web and mobile technology to create a hyper-connected society – video-conferencing with skype; social networking with twitter, facebook and instagram – many of us are always connected and in touch 24/7.  And these innovative technologies are starting to be applied to the problem of loneliness. For example, Casserole links older people with members of the community willing to share their home cooked food, addressing social isolation in the community as well as improving nutrition for those who struggle to cook for themselves.  Hometouch and Mindings are also great examples of using technology to enable better communication between families living apart.  We need to support them more, especially in their early development.

Simple, accessible, effective solutions such as these can have a huge and lasting impact on society.  At Nesta Impact Investments we are looking to fund and develop those organisations whose innovative approach will change the way we engage and care for our older population now and far into the future.

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By Katie Mountain – Nesta Impact Investments

This article was originally published at Nesta.
Read the original article.