Future of community services in Sutton
NHS Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body has agreed to directly award an interim, transitional contract for Sutton Community Services to the Sutton Health and Care Provider Alliance (with Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust hosting the contract) for a period of one plus one years (April 2019 to March 2021).
Dr Jeff Croucher, Sutton GP and Clinical Chair of NHS Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group, said “We want to reassure local people that they will not see any changes to their local services or the staff who provide them. This is a change to the management and hosting of the services - the way the staff care for patients day to day will stay the same.”
NHS Sutton CCG and Sutton Council would like to thank The Royal Marsden for the good quality community services they have provided to local people in Sutton for the past eight years. The Royal Marsden is, rightly, immensely proud of Sutton Community Services and the improvements in quality and performance staff have achieved, as evidenced by patient feedback and national awards, in both Health Visiting and Service Innovation. However, we all believe that Sutton’s community services should now be hosted by a partner in the Sutton Health and Care Provider Alliance (SHC Alliance) rather than a provider of specialist cancer care.
The SHC Alliance was formed so that local health and care providers can work together to deliver high quality health and social care for Sutton residents. Care will be co-ordinated around the individual’s needs and not the organisations providing the care.
The SHC Alliance is already starting to deliver innovative services in Sutton that will provide joined-up care. The first of these is Sutton Health and Care at Home which went live in April.
The award of the interim transitional contract for Sutton’s community services will allow time for Alliance partners to focus on further developing the Sutton Health and Care services.
It is also very important that our much valued and highly skilled staff across the Alliance have the opportunity to help co-design new ways of working together to improve how our community services are delivered without being hampered by the uncertainty of organisational change.
Following last week's local elections, the newly elected Council in Sutton will be considering the future of the children's services it commissions. The Council is keen to conduct a joint review of children's services with partners and to put interim arrangements in place which will maximise the potential for local professionals to co-design and integrate Health Visiting and School Nursing with other services such as Children's Centres and Early Help. The Council will be in a position to make a further announcement on its children's community services contract later on this summer.
NHS Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group
London Borough of Sutton
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
