04 August 2016
New partnership to deliver community health services for children
A new partnership of healthcare providers, including University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, has been selected as the
preferred bidder to deliver community health services for children
and young people in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North
Somerset.
The services that fall within the scope of this contract
include; health visiting, school nursing, child and adolescent
mental health (CAMHS), speech and language therapy (SALT),
occupational therapy and physiotherapy, community paediatricians,
community nursing and a range of dedicated services for vulnerable
children including children in care, children with learning
disabilities, children with life limiting conditions and children
with drug and alcohol problems.
The partnership is made up of local, not for profit and NHS
providers; Bristol Community Health CIC, Sirona care & health
CIC, North Somerset Community Partnership CIC, Avon and Wiltshire
Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and University Hospitals
Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
Two other services are being commissioned separately as part of
the overall re-commissioning of Children's Community Health
Services. These are CAMHS Tier 4 specialised services, which
provide assessment and treatment for children and young people with
more complex needs usually requiring inpatient treatment, and the
Paediatric Primary Care Clinical Support Service.
Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Bristol City Council, South
Gloucestershire Council and NHS England commenced the
re-procurement process for children's community health services at
the beginning of February 2016.
Subject to successful preferred bidder discussions during the
next few months, services under the new contract will commence in
April 2017.
Julia Clarke, Chief Executive at Bristol Community Health said:
"I'm absolutely delighted that our partnership has been awarded
preferred bidder status. Building on the work we've achieved over
the last year as interim provider (in partnership with Sirona care
& health CIC and AWP), our expanded partnership can now focus
on providing a more joined up, regional children's community
healthcare service which will break down the organisational and
sector barriers that can get in the way of great family care. Our
not-for-profit partnership also benefits from an alignment of
values which we firmly believe will benefit families over
time."
Janet Rowse, Sirona care & health's chief executive, said:
"We are really excited about the opportunities this presents to
build on the work we have started within South Gloucestershire as
part of the interim contract and to build even closer working with
our well established community adult services and our partners in
Bristol and North Somerset. Sirona has a strong track record
of providing and developing community healthcare services for
children, young people and families in Bath and North East Somerset
and we will work hard to join up this experience with that of the
services across the Community Children's Healthcare Partnership so
that services continue to be the best they can be for the
communities of South Gloucestershire.
AWP chief executive Hayley Richards said, "I'm delighted with
the decision of the commissioners. Across the partnership our many
highly skilled, vastly experienced experts in children's healthcare
have been working together incredibly hard to develop a proposal
that meets the needs of children, young people and families across
South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bristol.We have formed a
strong, positive partnership and I'm looking forward to developing
that further over the next five years. From the perspective of AWP,
I have been very impressed with the incredibly caring child and
adolescent mental health staff who transferred into our Trust in
April. They have enhanced our organisation and I'm delighted that
they will be staying with us."
Robert Woolley, chief executive of University Hospitals Bristol
NHS Foundation Trust: "We are very proud to be working in
partnership with organisations that share our values and commitment
in delivering high quality, accessible and integrated services for
children, young people and families across Bristol, North Somerset
and South Gloucestershire and believe this way of working
collaboratively is the future.
"Our role in the new service model will focus on ensuring that
acute and community services are well integrated and the transition
between paediatric and adult services is a smooth and effective
process."
Penny Brown, chief executive of North Somerset Community
Partnership said: "We are delighted that our consortium has
been announced as preferred bidder and are confident that this
model of care will enhance our service offering in North Somerset.
We are looking forward to working with our partners to refine our
plan, to ensure our communities receive the best possible care
within the resources available."
BACK TO NEWS
