KEY POINTS

• Help-at-home schemes provide older people with access to a range of highly-valued support and can lead to health and wellbeing benefits.
• Help-at-home schemes appear to save local government and the NHS around £1500 per person per year, owing to:
  • people remaining longer in their homes, rather than moving to care homes;
  • fewer GP appointments;
  • fewer hospital admissions.
• Benefits of help-at-home schemes might also accrue to volunteers providing support (who are more likely to find jobs after gaining skills through volunteering with the schemes).
• Findings from the economic evaluation summarised here are the first to demonstrate that help-at-home schemes also have the potential to offer value for money
• Despite the support provided by help-at-home schemes some older people continue to experience loneliness, financial worries and personal care.
• Despite economic evidence that help-at-home schemes can be good value for money, many benefits are likely to depend on local infrastructures and how such schemes are run, making it hard to generalise their value.