Cinnamon Care Collection is to roll out its participation in the national Vivaldi social care programme across its care home portfolio, strengthening access to real-time data designed to improve infection prevention and reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
Cinnamon Care Collection is to roll out its participation in the national Vivaldi social care programme across its care home portfolio, strengthening access to real-time data designed to improve infection prevention and reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
The move will see more of the provider's 25 homes contribute anonymised routine care data to the research and surveillance initiative, which links care home records with NHS datasets to support earlier intervention and more joined-up care for older people.
The expansion was highlighted during a recent visit to the provider's Eden Court home in Battersea by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Lucy Chappell and other senior leaders, where the home showcased its role in the programme.
Vivaldi Social Care is a national research and surveillance programme led by University College London (UCL) in partnership with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), NHS England, Care England and The Outstanding Society. Building on the original pandemic-era Vivaldi study set up in 2020 to address a lack of data on infection rates in care homes, it now links routine care home records with NHS datasets, including hospital admissions, prescriptions and mortality.
Following a pilot, the programme has scaled to a network of hundreds of homes, using automated, anonymised data flows from digital care record systems to generate real-time insight without additional administrative burden on staff. Outputs include UKHSA dashboards and a national research dataset managed by UCL to support infection surveillance and service improvement.
Professor Lucy Chappell said the programme “highlights how the system can work together to improve outcomes… by linking data across sectors to support prevention, earlier intervention and more joined-up care closer to home.”
Initially integrated into the DHSC’s Care data matters roadmap under the previous Conservative government, the programme now aligns with the current government’s direction of travel set out in its 10 Year Health Plan focusing on moving care out of hospitals and into community settings, accelerating the transition from analogue to digital services, and prioritising prevention over treatment.
Cinnamon said the programme would strengthen infection prevention and operational insight. Village manager Yetty Adepegba described participation as placing the home “at the forefront of vital national research” directly improving resident safety and wellbeing.
Professor public health & translational data science at UCL’s Institute of Health Informatics Laura Shallcross added that the initiative “shows what can be achieved” when providers, researchers and policymakers collaborate to deliver research grounded in residents’ needs, while The Outstanding Society nursing director Zoe Fry OBE highlighted the programme’s co-produced design and its role in creating “meaningful and practical” evidence to improve outcomes.
