March 2022
It's almost two years since the first lockdown, which has had a significant impact on all of us. Our thoughts are with everyone who has lost a friend, family member or colleague during this terrible pandemic.
Last month the Prime Minister announced plans for living with COVID-19 and the end of government restrictions, which shows just how far we've come. This would not be possible, without the hugely successful vaccination and testing programme. Locally, this has been a real testament to the strong collaboration and partnership working across the system. Vaccination will remain our first line of defence against the virus and continues to offer strong protection against severe illness and hospitalisation. I’d like to say a huge thank you to staff, the public and our partners who continue to support the COVID-19 response, which remains our biggest challenge across health and care.
The cumulative effect of the three waves of COVID-19 over the past few years has created a significant care backlog nationally, as well locally. Health and care services in the area remain under significant pressure due to increased demand, staff sickness and workforce issues. All partners are working closely together to manage our collective resources and support timely discharge from hospital. It will be an uphill struggle, but the enthusiasm and creativity across the system never fails to impress me. We are investing in innovative new systems that will give us real-time intelligence, that will help us respond in a timely way. Over the coming weeks, I hope to share more about this.
The Government recently published two important White Papers' (policy documents that set out proposals for future legislation), which set out plans for Levelling Up and Integration.
- The Levelling Up White Paper sets out a plan to transform the UK by spreading opportunity and prosperity to all areas and includes specific targets for our system to incorporate into plans over the next year. The policy focuses on outcomes, improving public health, supporting people to change their food and diet, and tackling backlogs. More information can be found on the UK website – the NHS Confederation has also produced a review of the White Paper.
- The health and social care integration: joining up care for people, places and populations set out measures to make integrated health and social care a ‘universal reality’ for everyone across England. This paper is integral to the place agenda locally and paves the way for designing shared outcomes that will ensure person-centred care, improve population health, and reduce health disparities.
We’re in a strong place locally to respond to these proposed legislative reforms. Our local conversations and plans are already building the necessary foundations for increased integration. As an ICS we are reviewing the latest guidance and building it into our plans as we work at pace to mobilise by 1 July 2022.
In a positive step forward for the anticipated Integrated Care Board (ICB), Paul Brown has been appointed to the role of Chief Finance Officer and Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones MBE to the role of Chief Medical Officer. You can read more about this below.
We are preparing for the recruitment process for three additional ICB executives, including the Chief Digital Officer, Chief People Officer, and the Director of Corporate Governance. These ICB Board roles will support the system to deliver our core priorities and ensure we collaborate to make fair, accountable, and open decisions that best serve our population.
The new national deadline has given us the opportunity to shadow operate as many of the new infrastructure and arrangements as possible, including the ICB committees, shadow place meetings and provider collaborative meetings in preparation for July.
I recently attended our first Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Provider Collaborative (a partnership of local NHS Hospital Trusts) workshop. This collaborative will be integral to continued system partnership working and delivery as part of large-scale projects, such as population health management. It’s great to see the momentum building, we’ll continue to keep you updated on progress.
Finally, thanks go to our staff and partners for their continued support as we go through this transition period. It's brilliant to see so much great work and strong partnerships forming across the patch. Despite the significant amount of work around transition, we're clear that we cannot lose sight of our real priorities tackling inequality and improving health outcomes for local people.
Peter Axon, Interim CEO for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS and the anticipated ICB
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On Friday 4 March Paul Brown was appointed to the role of Chief Finance Officer designate to the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB). You may already know Paul from his role as the Director of Finance for the six Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
"Paul will take up post officially on 1 July but will work with me and the rest of the Board, as it is appointed, to ensure a smooth transition to the new system architecture. I am sure you will join me in congratulating Paul on his new role.” - Peter Axon Interim CEO for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS and the anticipated ICB
On Wednesday 9 March Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones MBE was appointed to the role of Chief Medical Officer designate to the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Paul is well known and respected within the local health and care system, in his current role as Director of Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Wellbeing and Director of Public Health at Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Read more ...
Interviews for the Chief Transformation and Delivery Officer are being held on Friday 25 March and the Chief Nursing and Therapies Officer scheduled for two weeks later on Friday 8 April. The ICB is taking shape.
An additional Board meeting has been scheduled, with the last ICS Board meeting in public taking place on 21 April 2022. After this, it will transition to an ICB. The first meeting of the ICB as a statutory organisation, in public, will take place on 1 July 2022. For more information about the ICB and the meeting schedule, visit the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website.
As we work towards forming the ICS on a statutory footing, we have a real opportunity to involve clinical and care professionals in every level of decision making.
Last month, the first multi-organisation and multi-professional networking event for clinicians and care professionals across the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS took place. The event was a great success and it provided some useful feedback, which is currently being collated along with results from the survey. We will share more updates over the coming weeks and months.
For more information please visit the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website.
The report Delivering a Net Zero Health Service sets a clear ambition and target for the NHS.
Our trusts shared their Green Plans with the ICS and NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) in January 2022.
There is a system-wide strategy in production to capture the Trusts' ambitions and provide a platform for the wider ICS Green Plan aspirations towards net carbon zero. This will be submitted to NHSEI by 31 March 2022.
Plans are underway to hold a launch event in spring 2022 to share our collective greener ambitions.
For more information please visit the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website.
We are continuing to work in the background to deliver the Transformation Programme. As you know, the work was paused in 2020 to allow time to respond to the pandemic but was restarted last summer. Clinicians and managers are reviewing the comments received from all of the involvement activity as they develop proposals.
Earlier this month, we published several reports of findings relating to the involvement activity undertaken since last summer. These reports support a number of key priorities identified by the ICS. These priorities recognise the challenges we face as a system, including the need to maintain adequate staffing levels with the right mix of skills, support an ageing population with increasingly complex needs and restore clinical and financial sustainability. The reports of findings cover:
The Difficult Decisions Programme relates to a number of procedures where commissioning varies across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. These are: assisted conception; hearing aids for non-complex hearing loss; male and female sterilisation; breast augmentation and reconstruction; removal of excess skin following significant weight loss.
More information on the background to these programmes can be found on the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website.
The Transformation programme is being supported by reference groups, which anyone can join. If you are interested in the work of a reference group or wish to register interest visit the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website.
Keep checking on the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS website and social media channels for updates about the Transformation Programme.
A major drive has been launched to recruit NHS reservists. Thousands of new NHS reservists are being recruited to support the health service, as staff tackle COVID-19 backlogs - creating a bank of extra resource when it is needed.
Our very own reservist model, here in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, not only informed the national model but has been showcased as a leading pilot. Another example of how we are leading the way locally as a partnership. Read more ...
To celebrate all of our People Hub achievements and to thank our incredible workforce for their amazing work during the pandemic and beyond, we are holding a very special virtual celebration event for staff currently working on the People Hub and partners on Tuesday 29 March 2022. For more information and any questions please email: SSOT.ICSPeopleHub@mpft.nhs.uk.
Healthier ageing and frailty strategy
Crisis Rapid Intervention Service (CRIS) strategy
The Community Rapid Intervention Service (CRIS) is an integrated service provided by both the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) and Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) for patients at risk of needing admission to hospital. It aims to support people to stay at home instead of being taken to hospital. You can find out more about the CRIS service online.
The evaluation timescales for this pilot have been put back several months by the Omicron surge, but the CRIS rollout across the ICS continues and has already commenced in the south. Evaluation will inform the development of the CRIS strategy from June 2022 onwards and Keele University have agreed to support the evaluation in terms of the evidence review, the community of practice, qualitative interviews and an academic report. The system Quality Improvement (QI) function led by John Costello is supporting the QI and qualitative elements of the evaluation.
The evaluation will make recommendations on how the CRIS model will need to be structured and resourced moving forward.
Prevention
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBB) have requested the presentation of the ICS Healthier Ageing and Frailty Strategy in March. Work has commenced in the following areas:
- Social isolation and loneliness
- Physical activity and other interventions to delay the onset of frailty
- Engagement with ethnic minority communities
- A community insight project working with Staffordshire University is looking at what offers there are already out there to support people at risk of frailty. i.e self-help, self-motivating exercise.
Staffordshire University is supporting work around prevention and community assets and seeing how this could be scaled up to support the prevention plan. Local authorities are leading on local healthy ageing plans as part of their HWBB strategies.
Mild to moderate and severe frailty
Work has been carried out to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to the proactive identification of patients at high risk of admission across frailty categories. Evidence has informed the best practice for the service delivery and recommendations for potential future service models for moderate and severe frailty.
An outcomes framework for moderate frailty is being developed and Public Health colleagues are facilitating an evaluation of existing services. This includes work to improve the staying well service in the south and expand the hub capacity, the clinical model for the North Integrated Care Hubs, the clinical reference group for long term conditions and making closer links with local authority work to ensure pre frailty (before people become frail) and mild frailty are aligned, accessible, and there is no duplication of effort. A comprehensive best practice guide will be developed.
Both project implementation plans (PIPs) will be in development in the next few months. These will focus on avoiding duplication and joint working across the system. An evaluation of a care home using the Dementia and Delirium Smartphone App, that improves cognitive assessment, is also being undertaken.
Falls
In June 2021 as part of the Frailty Programme, it was agreed that a review of all falls services across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent would take place.
The aim of the falls programme is to look at:-
- What looks good?
- What are the current offers?
- Are these services what are required for the future?
- Reduce hospital admissions associated with falls during 20/21 by 10%
And, more importantly, provide patients with good, responsive and managed services that promote independence and provide education and self-care techniques.
Read more …
System savings
We now have draft financial allocations for the system for 2022/23, and are focusing on developing a plan that delivers the financial targets for the year. Alongside this, project implementation plans (PIPs) are being reviewed.
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Health and Care Senate are working with finance leaders to refine the metrics we are using to inform the goals of our emerging clinical strategy.
New project implementation plans (PIPs) will be created to deliver financial improvements as part of the financial and service plan that is due to be agreed upon by the end of April.
Population health management (PHM)
A population health management approach in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will help us understand current, and predicted future health and care needs, so that together we can improve outcomes, reduce inequalities, improve the use of resources, and engage our community appropriately. The National PHM Development Programme will run for approximately 22 weeks leaving the ICS with the capability to scale, spread and sustain a PHM approach across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent element of the National Population Health Management (PHM) Development Programme (Wave 3) will launch later this month.
Health inequalities (HI)
Due to the prioritisation of the vaccine programme and sustained system pressures many ICS programmes were paused. These programmes are restarting as we continue to make significant in-roads to becoming a legally established ICS in line with the revised national target date of 1 July 2022.
An agreement has been reached with Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council regarding the vision and objectives of the ICS HI programme and how this will work with the Health and Wellbeing Strategies. The programme blueprint has been drafted for approval upon establishment of the HI Programme Board.
It is intended to relaunch the Health Inequalities (HI) programme in March 2022 to encompass three key areas in its portfolio: Governance and Accountability; Leadership and Management; and Development Support alongside the delivery of HI workstreams already in progress and other HI initiatives aligned with prevention and underpinned by population health management. The delivery structure of the programme has been drafted to mirror these three key areas and for the delivery of a HI framework by the end of March 2023.
Restoration and recovery: staff
Follow this link to read the full restoration and recovery report on staff. This includes:-
New appointments (including an ICS Outreach Advisor, Apprentices, recruiting and training care workers to give ad-hoc support to care homes and home care organisations, home care workers).
Be Well Midlands - a programme that aims to enhance our health and wellbeing provision to our workforce.
Pilot scheme to support new differently-abled colleagues.
Launch of ‘New Futures’ programme, a positive action programme for colleagues with ethnic diverse heritage who wish to advance their careers and enhance their skills as inclusion champions.
The mental health virtual career experience - a virtual work experience that showcased the system career opportunities to our cornerstone schools across all localities.
Community Mental Health Transformation Programme
Primary care, NHS mental health providers, CCGs, local authorities and voluntary and community sector organisations are working alongside people with lived experience to transform community mental health in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent to enable adults with severe mental illness to access care and support close to home in a new, more joined-up and effective way, regardless of their diagnosis or level of complexity.
Getting involved
An Involvement Collaborative has been set up by Support Staffordshire, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) and North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust (NSCHT) to create a consistent approach to ensuring people with lived experience are involved with decision-making and evaluation throughout the transformation programme.
People with lived experience continue to be involved in workshops and other events to help shape the transformation and if you would like to be involved email:
NSCHT has also released a podcast discussing co-production within the programme.
Focus on severe mental illness health checks and Community Assessment Stabilisation and Treatment Team
This Question and Answer sheet by John Roberts, Service Manager of NSCHT’s Stoke Community Directorate focuses on the work taking place to support severe mental illness physical and mental health checks. You can also read a Q&A with Lee Mason, NSCHT Service Manager with the Community Assessment Stabilisation and Treatment Team (CASTT), who talks about this key priority for the transformation programme.
For the latest updates on the programme and to find out more, visit: Together We’re Better’s Adult Community Mental Health Transformation page.
COVID-19 Vaccination Programme
With COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, it is important that people continue to get vaccinated and protected from coronavirus. The COVID-19 vaccine is making a big difference to help protect us all. It does not remove the virus entirely, but research shows it can prevent the worst effects, including ‘long COVID’ effects such as extreme weakness and tiredness. It can also protect you and those around you from catching the virus as easily.
It is great to see that so many people are still coming forward for their first vaccine. Over 75% of people in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent have now received their vaccination and we are encouraging people to continue to come forward. We need everyone to do their bit and have their vaccine as early as they can.
A booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine helps improve the protection you have from your first 2 doses of the vaccine. Everyone aged 16 and over who had a 2nd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at least 3 months ago can get a booster dose. Some children aged 12 to 15 can get a booster dose if they have a condition that puts them at high risk from COVID-19 or they live with someone who has a weakened immune system. 83% of people who are eligible for boosters have already come forward and we encourage anyone who is due their next dose to have it without a delay.
The health secretary has announced that, from spring, there will be an additional COVID-19 booster for people aged 75 years and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and people aged 12 years and over who are immunosuppressed.
Booking an appointment is easy, just visit www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or call 119 to book your first or second dose. There are also convenient vaccine walk-in clinics where you don’t need an appointment, you can find your closest location here www.nhs.uk/grab-a-jab.
Childhood Immunisations and COVID-19 vaccine
Children aged 5 to 11 who are in a clinical risk group or who live with someone who is immunosuppressed will be able to get a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. If your 5-11 year old is eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination, you will be contacted to arrange an appointment. From the beginning of April 2022, children aged 5 to 11 who are not at risk will also be invited to have a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Routine vaccinations for babies, pre-school children and adults are continuing as normal. It is important that your baby or child still has their immunisations, to help protect them against serious illnesses. Don’t put off routine vaccinations.
For more information visit:
CCGs and ICS shortlisted for a Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Award
CCGs and ICS shortlisted for a Health Services Journal (HSJ) Partnership Award
The six Staffordshire CCGs and ICS have been shortlisted for two Health Service Journal (HSJ) Partnership Awards:
- A behaviour change project that includes remote clinical support and management for people with atrial fibrillation (a heart condition).
- Multi-agency working to reach the parts of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent others couldn’t. A multi-agency approach by councils, the NHS and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service targeting communities where take-up of COVID-19 vaccinations was known to be low.
The results will be announced on 24 March 2022, good luck to everyone who has been nominated.
UHNM rainbow badge scheme survey
The NHS Rainbow Badge was created to be a way for NHS staff to demonstrate that they are aware of the issues that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and others (LGBT+) can face when accessing healthcare.
As part of UHNM's work to demonstrate their commitment to reducing barriers to healthcare for LGBT people they are hosting a survey. The data collected will guide activities over the coming years and show us what our staff and local people want us to focus on, to change and improve. Read more …
To get involved and find out more visit the UHNM website.
Refugee nurses from Syria and Lebanon to start work at Royal Stoke
Five refugee nurses from Syria and Lebanon will soon start work at Royal Stoke University Hospital.
University Hospitals of North Midlands is one of just 12 NHS trusts in the UK taking part in a pilot scheme to deploy qualified nurses who are seeking refuge from their home countries. Read more ...
UHNM's spring newsletter can be found here.
UHDB - dedicated volunteers and co-ordinators team recognised for going above and beyond
Volunteers and the Voluntary Service Team across University Hospital Derby and Burton (UHDB) have been recognised for their resilience and for going above and beyond throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, after being awarded a Team UHDB Making a Difference Award.
In March 2020 many volunteering roles were paused as the country went into lockdown. After months of being away from the Trust, volunteers who support UHDB have slowly begun to return. Read more …
Cash boost for Stoke-on-Trent mental health service
A mental health support service in Stoke-on-Trent has received a cash boost in memory of a loved one to improve its support for service users.
Safe Spaces, a short-stay accommodation for people needing a break from their day-to-day lives, has received a donation of £1,020 to re-build their garden facilities and provide a safe place for people to talk about their feelings.
The money has been donated in memory of Safe Spaces’ former Manager, Jackie Smith, who sadly passed away in February 2021.
More than 70 members of her family, friends, and local businesses came together to produce raffle prizes for a memorial event on what would have been her 50th birthday. The money will go towards helping people less fortunate and going through a difficult time.
Jackie was a long-term member of the Brighter Futures team and a good friend of so many that worked with her. Read more …
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