A return on investment analysis quantifies the expected or actual impact of an intervention or change.

In 2024, Healthcare Improvement Scotland conducted a Return on Investment analysis (ROI) as part of its Focus on Frailty Improvement Programme. The purpose of this Return on Investment analysis is to help inform NHS board and Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) business cases for:

• Community-based interventions for preventing, treating and supporting frailty
• Hospital-based Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGA).

This analysis is based on a review of evidence and literature available from secondary sources. It describes the reasonably expected return from interventions based on the findings from other research conducted on similar interventions across the United Kingdom (with some international evidence where suitable evidence was found). We have not analysed the activities undertaken by the six local partnerships in Scotland that participated in the Focus on Frailty programme.

The ROI analysis is designed to inform business cases. It aims to indicate the likely impact associated with a wide range of community-based interventions and hospital-based CGAs. Providing this can strengthen the case made for investing in these initiatives as part of local business case processes.

We do not recommend using this analysis to inform detailed capacity and demand planning across NHS board or HSCP area. There are too many complexities that would need to be worked through to utilise it at that level of detail – including lag and duration of impacts, as well as long wait times for various services, which muddles the realisation of these resources. Instead, we hope that this analysis can provide a valuable and reasonable indication of the impact that an intervention can have on the overall demand and capacity across a local area over time associated with frailty.

• You can access the ROI tool here
• You can access the ROI supporting information here
• You can access the summary methodology report here
• We are currently planning a range of information and training sessions related to this tool please complete this Expression of Interest if you would like to be on the contact list for when we have these arranged.