Senior NHS leaders in North Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear are working in collaboration to improve mental health and learning disability services across the region.
John Lawlor, Chief Executive at Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (NTW), a provider of mental health and disability services is in Cumbria this week to continue the service improvement journey with senior leaders at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT).
At the end of February it was agreed by both boards at NTW and CPFT that mental health and learning disability services in north Cumbria will transfer to NTW. Plans are now underway on delivering this and ensuring that the transfer of services can be undertaken safely and effectively. Both Trusts will now begin a period of engagement about the service transfer which should be complete by 1 October.
John Lawlor said: “We are passionate about driving forward improvements that will benefit the health and wellbeing of those we serve across North Cumbria. By working in partnership with our colleagues at CPFT we can learn from each other and embrace the opportunity to work collaboratively with our staff, service users, carers and partners to implement positive and sustainable change.”
Stephen Eames, Chief Executive at CPFT said: “This is a positive step for patients in North Cumbria. NTW has a long track record of providing outstanding care across an extensive geographical area and will be able to bring more expertise to help us improve the quality of our services and tackle some of the longstanding challenges we have. NTW are committed to ensuring mental health and disability services are delivered locally into the system, particularly into our integrated care communities here in North Cumbria and will be able to share their successful experiences in recruitment. We can now start to plan the transfer with our staff in more detail.”
The position for mental health and disability services in South Cumbria is now clearer as it has been confirmed that adult mental health services, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and learning disability services will also transfer from CPFT to Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust (LCFT) on 1 October 2019.
NTW will continue to provide service improvement support and expertise to services across Cumbria, which includes working with LCFT. The work undertaken to CAMHS so far has already started to deliver positive changes for patients and families.
All three organisations are committed to continue to work together collaboratively and in partnership to ensure the very best outcome for patients and staff.
