Jill Lanham

The Trust is pleased to announce that Buckinghamshire has been selected to join the first wave of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP). This is a major national initiative designed to transform the NHS over the next decade by delivering high-quality, joined-up care closer to people’s homes. Buckinghamshire is one of only 43 successful applicants chosen from 141 submissions nationwide. The selection recognises the county’s evolving neighbourhood model and the strong commitment to collaborative working across health, care, the voluntary and community sector, and wider partners. The programme will support the development of integrated neighbourhood health services across Buckinghamshire, with a specific focus on High Wycombe, North Buckinghamshire, Beaconsfield and Marlow. The neighbourhood teams will bring together professionals from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Primary care led by Bucks GP Provider Alliance, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Buckinghamshire Council, voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, pharmacy, optometry and dentistry services. The Government praised Buckinghamshire’s application for its innovation, ambition, and strong local collaboration. The programme will build on existing work and experience, supporting sites through collaborative learning, coaching, implementation and support to roll out this new vision for health care in local communities. Raghuv Bhasin, Chief Operating Officer, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust said: “Neighbourhood Care is central to our vision of helping people in Buckinghamshire live healthier and more independent lives. It is about working with partners to move services to fit around the needs of people and communities, being more proactive in providing support and using all the skills of our excellent teams and the voluntary sector. We are already making changes – for example offering proactive frailty appointments as a MOT for our older residents – and this neighbourhood programme will support us to go further faster to improve things for the people of Buckinghamshire.” Read more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eeStF7-r NHS Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board Buckinghamshire Council

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Last night, Sutton’s Health and Wellbeing Board approved an ambitious new Dementia Strategy for our borough. This five-year plan has been developed with residents alongside local organisations across the voluntary, community and health and care sectors. A key part of the Strategy is the new Dementia Hub, delivered by our Admiral Nursing Team and Age UK Sutton. The Hub, which launched in April 2025, provides people with dementia and their loved ones and carers, the information and support needed at every stage of their dementia journey. Find out more about what this means for dementia care in Sutton: https://lnkd.in/eySYfsi6

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Last week, our Professional Adviser Dr Sally Payne gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee as part of its inquiry, 'The First 1000 Days: A Renewed Focus'. The session looked at how NHS services support children and families from conception to age two – a vital period for early development and long-term wellbeing. Sally highlighted the growing pressures on children’s occupational therapists and called for a shift to early intervention in schools and early years settings. To make this possible, commissioning models must support proactive, community-based occupational therapy. 📺 Watch the full session: https://loom.ly/LuSCa58

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📢 We’re excited to launch a new eight-month programme, an innovative collaboration with NHS England South East and our associates including PPL. This initiative will support six neighbourhood teams across the South East to tackle complex local health challenges, reduce inequalities and deliver joined-up care across organisational boundaries.    The selected teams are ambitious and ready to drive meaningful change. At its core, this programme is about improving health and care experiences for all, enhancing population health outcomes and ensuring that residents’ voices are heard at every stage.   From digital innovation and human-centred design to immersive simulation and relationship-building for neighbourhood working, the programme is designed to:   ✅ spark cross-sector collaboration ✅ deepen leadership practice ✅ drive system-wide impact.   Our core commitments are to support the teams to collaborate across sectors, develop shared language and purpose for neighbourhood working and embed the resident voice at every stage.   For residents, this means more accessible, coordinated care that fits around their lives — not around system boundaries. It means greater confidence that their voices are shaping local decisions. And at a population level, it means using data and lived experience together to reduce inequalities and build healthier communities across the south east 🌱🏘️   You can find out more about NHS England South East's work to deliver neighbourhood working and care closer to home in its region on its website 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e8bPMJs3   We can’t wait to welcome our cohort of innovative, determined teams ready to lead the way in neighbourhood health at our launch event on 19 September 2025 ✨ Watch this space for updates! #NHSConfedLeadership #NeighbourhoodHealthService #ResidentVoice   Helen Gillivan; Dr Dr Mayur Vibhuti; Victoria Stanway; Louise Wheeler; Emma Spencer MSc.

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CQC rates Lancashire County Council adult social care as “Requires Improvement” The Care Quality Commission gave scores of 2/5 for all statements, with an overall score of 50/100. Context Lancashire serves 1.27m residents; 22,970 people access long-term support. Adult social care was 22.06% of total spend in 2023/24 (c. 43% of the net revenue budget). An ageing population (21.09% 65+ vs 18.69% England; +27% by 2042) adds pressure. Key findings 🔎 People’s experience: “People could not always access care when, where and how they needed it.” Yet, “Most people reported positive interactions with supportive and competent practitioners.” 🔎 Access and waits: 2,089 awaiting Care Act assessments (median 27 days; max 226). 3,815 awaiting annual reviews (median 441 days; some >7 years). OT waits up to 262 days. 🔎 Safeguarding: 2,643 awaiting DoLS (median 86 days vs 21-day target). 🔎 Hospital discharge: mixed. Some trusts report “good, formalised operational relationships”; others cite “complex, reactive pathways”. NHS colleagues highlight limited homecare capacity as a cause of delay; in some trusts up to 15% of beds were occupied by patients with no criteria to reside. Funding disputes (Section 117/CHC) added friction. 🔎 Provider market: 900+ commissioned providers, including 220+ homecare providers. Oversupply of standard residential care; shortages in homecare, nursing and specialist dementia. Gaps in homecare capacity delayed discharge and left people without timely support at home; some packages were closed after short hospital stays, slowing restarts. Framework reprocured at a fixed rate; providers welcomed stability but flagged rising complexity/costs and rural travel time. Workforce pressures persist and availability varies by locality. Average paid homecare rate is below £22.71, our Homecare Association calculation of direct employment costs at National Living Wage, including contact, travel and training time, placing Lancashire among the ~27% of council homecare contracts paying below basic employment costs, before including other running costs. Providers have capacity but they need costs covered. Let’s be honest about what this means: ➡️ For people: too many are stuck in queues — battling phone systems, waiting for an assessment, a safe discharge, an hour of help that doesn’t arrive on time, or at all. ➡️ For unpaid carers: the backstop — about 14,000 supported in 2023/24 — carrying emotional, physical and financial load when formal support is delayed. ➡️ For care workers: essential work in a fee environment that prevents pay for all working time, with knock-on effects for retention and continuity of care. The government says Baroness Casey will sort it all out. Do you think she will? You can read CQC’s report here: https://lnkd.in/ex3u-e2z #AdultSocialCare #CQC #Lancashire #LocalAuthority #HomeCare #NHS #Hospital #UnpaidCarers #Commissioning

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Alongside more than 70 health and care organisations, we have written to the Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, asking the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to meaningfully engage with the health sector on the development of the 10-Year Workforce Plan for the #NHS. It is crucial to establish a robust engagement process and allow the time required to produce a credible plan, with stakeholder buy-in and an accompanying implementation plan. RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel said: ‘Our NHS workforce will be critical to delivering the three shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Meaningful, proactive engagement with the medical profession is vital to deliver a credible plan. ‘Modelling the health workforce is no easy task, but we stand ready to offer our expertise to inform the assumptions underpinning the 10-Year Workforce Plan. Physicians are key to understanding demand in the medical specialties, as well as the staff roles that are needed and add value to delivering the best care possible for patients. We can provide insights into the shared and unique challenges that specialty workforces face, and our expertise in running and delivering frontline services. ‘Any physician will tell you how common rota gaps are and how these impact on delivering safe patient care. The reality for our members is a service where staffed are stretched, trying to keep up with demand that is changing with growing patient complexity and very little time to supervise and support our next generation of physicians. ‘We look forward to engaging on the 10-Year Workforce Plan and urge the Department and NHS England to get an engagement process underway.’ Learn more: https://ow.ly/rJlC50WQl4a

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