In the NHS mental health, learning disability and autism services,
nurses, doctors and other clinicians are working hard
to improve the lives of patients and their families and carers.
Every world class health service, however,
must continuously ask itself how it can be more effective in the future.
NHS England and Improvement is committed to continually reviewing the services they provide
to ensure we provide high quality and timely mental health care for everyone who needs it.
We are also working to tackle inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes.
And we believe that our decision making could be more collaborative and responsive
with patients and their families and carers playing a greater role in the decision-making process
than ever before and having their voices heard from board to ward.
We also want more patients to be treated closer to their homes,
communities and the people that support them best.
We’d like care pathways to be smoother
and to make transitions between different types of services easier for everyone involved.
So if it’s the best thing for them, patients can return to their friends,
family & community more quickly.
This is why NHS England’s Long Term plan has included extra funds and recommendations
to improve the operation and delivery of specialised mental health,
learning disability and autism services.
In the past, the decision making for commissioning specialised services
wasn’t as integrated as it could have been,
which meant that pathways of care could become fragmented.
But pilot programmes, where local providers work in partnership
to deliver whole pathways of care, proved that a better way is possible.
NHS Led Provider Collaboratives are a new type of clinically-led operational grouping,
led by a lead provider, accountable directly to NHS England regional teams.
They will take financial and clinical responsibility
for the commissioning of specialised services for their local population.
Including, children and young people mental health services,
adult eating disorders,
adult low and medium secure services
and secure learning disability and autism services.
These services will be developed by experts by experience,
In collaboration with local clinicians
local authorities,
other commissioners for example clinical commissioning groups
and service providers such as the voluntary community and social enterprise sector,
with the NHS England Regional teams providing support and oversight.
Provider Collaboratives will work with local Integrated Care Systems
and Strategic Transformation Partnerships,
which means they will be able to remove barriers and smoothly integrate community,
acute and specialised services,
as well as design and operate high-quality, local care pathways,
equally accessible to all, that better meet patient’s needs.
The aim is to deliver care much closer to home
and with the least restriction and disruption as possible.
With increased decision-making powers, and experts by experience central to the process,
Provider Collaboratives will be more able to implement local patients and carers views
on how services should be run.
Services will also be evaluated in a new way,
moving away from the total number of patients treated,
and towards an assessment based on the outcomes achieved for those patients.
By building a collaborative approach
we will improve the sharing of knowledge and resources amongst providers and commissioners,
and enable continuous improvement in local services.
The pilot programmes showed that treating patients closer to home,
reducing unnecessary hospitalisation,
and ensuring decision making involved patients
and was clinically led,
was not only more successful and less disruptive for patients,
but was also less expensive for the NHS.
This added efficiency frees up additional funds for the Provider Collaborative
to reinvest in the community,
helping to pay for much needed preventative programmes
and other early intervention mental health services.
The Provider Collaboratives and the LongTerm Plan are a direct response to patient,
family and carer feedback as well as from NHS staff.
They represent a moment of real change
and an opportunity for each of us to reshape and improve
how we work, both individually and together.
In fact, there has never been a better time to have your voice heard
or to make a difference to mental health,
learning disability and autism services.
To find out more about your local Provider Collaborative,
who to speak to if you want to get involved
or just to get some additional detail about how this change will affect you,
your care or your local community.
Please visit our website today,
further information can be found on the Provider Collaborative website
or just search online for NHS led Provider Collaboratives