From 1 April 2017 Children and Family Health Surrey will provide NHS children’s community health services across Surrey and north east Hampshire and Farnham. Children, young people and their families and carers are set to benefit from one service providing both physical and emotional wellbeing services across the county. These community health services focus on the prevention of ill health, promoting and supporting child development and providing targeted and specialist medical, nursing and therapy services.
Children and Family Health Surrey services are provided under one contract by three established NHS providers: CSH Surrey, First Community Health and Care and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust. By working together as one service, Children and Family Health Surrey will ensure children and young people continue to be at the centre of the care they receive as well as improve access to healthcare services across the county and in north east Hampshire.
Services will include:
• health visiting as part of the national Healthy Child Programme
• school nursing, which aims to keep children and young people well through proactive and preventative support
• specialist nursing and therapy services that support children and young people with additional needs
• school age immunisations
• emotional wellbeing services.
From 1 April services will be provided in the same way as before and most contact numbers will stay the same. From 1 July 2017 children, young people, their families and carers will begin to see differences in how services are provided. These will include:
• A single access point with one phone number – for families and healthcare professionals across Surrey and north east Hampshire to access and refer into community physical and emotional wellbeing services.
• Shared electronic Health records across Children and Family Health Surrey
• Extended health visitor advice line so parents and carers of babies and young children can get health care and support more easily
• Closer working between school nurses and health visitor from Children and Family Health Surrey and CAMHS (Children and adolescent mental health services).
Professor Jo Pritchard MBE, Chair of the Children and Family Health Alliance Board, says: “The experienced and committed health and care professionals providing the Children and Family Health Surrey service are looking forward to delivering integrated health services across the county, making it easier and quicker for families to get the healthcare, support and advice they need, wherever they live. Our vision for children’s community health services was developed by focusing first and foremost on the needs of children, young people and their families.”
A new website www.childrenshealthsurrey.nhs.uk also launches on 1 April 2017 to support Children and Family Health services and promote child and family health and wellbeing. The site has contact details for local services as well as a range of support information and advice.
Until 30 March 2017 Children’s NHS community health services in Surrey and north east Hampshire have been provided by CSH Surrey (mid Surrey), First Community Health and Care (east Surrey) and Virgin Care Services Ltd (north west and west Surrey, and north east Hampshire).
Under the new contract, all of the existing services will operate as one service alongside Mindsight Surrey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
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Notes to editor
The Surrey CCG Collaborative, Surrey County Council and NHS England appointed Surrey Healthy Children and Families Limited Liability Partnership (Registered name and address: Surrey Healthy Children and Families LLP, 18 Mole Business Park, Randalls Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7AD Company number: OC415159) to deliver children’s community health services across Surrey and north east Hampshire from 1 April 2017. This followed a competitive procurement process that asked bidders to set out how they would deliver children’s community health services across Surrey and north east Hampshire and improve pathways and outcomes for children, young people and their families and carers.
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust: Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of specialist mental health and learning disability services for people of all ages in Surrey and North East Hampshire and drug & alcohol services in Surrey, Hounslow and Brighton. We also provide social care services for people with a learning disability in Croydon and autism assessment services in Portsmouth. Our high quality care focuses on enabling people to live well with their conditions and to work towards recovery. To do this we employ over 2,300 people across 47 sites.
CSH Surrey: is part of the NHS family and has been delivering children’s health services in mid Surrey (and some Surrey-wide) since 2006. It is a not-for-profit social enterprise, which means it exists to benefit the communities in which it works over and above the services delivered through its contracts. Since 2012 it has awarded more than £40,000 in grants to support local charities and groups to deliver health and wellbeing projects that have benefited local communities. CSH Surrey is also employee-owned (in a model similar to the John Lewis Partnership), which has led to higher levels of engagement and motivation than among staff in the wider NHS – because when you own something, you care more about it. This means CSH Surrey’s 720+ nurses, therapists and support staff are fully involved in running their services and have the freedom to innovate and make improvements to care. CSH Surrey was the first employee-owned, social enterprise created to deliver NHS community services in the country. Since then, more than 100 other similar organisations have been established by public sector employees keen to reap the benefits of employee-ownership in delivering higher quality services. CSH Surrey’s average Friends and Family Test score over the last 12 months is 97%. For more information, visit www.cshsurrey.co.uk and follow CSH Surrey on Twitter @CSHSurrey.
First Community Health and Care: is part of the NHS family delivering community healthcare services in East Surrey and the surrounding area. We offer a friendly face with highly rated, well-run services, delivered by our skilled people. We provide high-quality nursing and therapy teams, children and family services as well as a ward, rapid assessment clinic and Minor Injuries Unit at Caterham Dene Hospital. We are passionate about the communities where we work and we put community first. It’s at the heart of what we do. As a social enterprise, our people share in ownership and decision-making, taking responsibility for delivering great care. We work together to identify any savings we can make, creating additional funds that go straight back into the local community. Visit our website for more details: www.firstcommunityhealthcare.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @1stchatter