Archive for October, 2009

The theme of working together for improved services crops up more than once in this the latest report from the PEC committee meeting with the management team of NHS Wandsworth. This is personal feedback from our PECMAN Andrew Craig in his role as the Lay Member on the PEC (Professional Executive Committee).

Better Integration = More Effective Commissioning

The discussion on how best to provide the services needed by drug and alcohol users identified the important point that ‘drug and alcohol services should be considered together for commissioning purposes in close liaison with the local authority.’ Andrew added his own view saying:

“I welcomed the emphasis on better integration and more effective commissioning of these services. The Local Strategic Partnership should be the forum to address the wider non-health issues around drug and alcohol problems as it could involve more stakeholders including the police and courts service. Insight from service users was an essential part of the intelligence the PCT must obtain in order to improve its competencies in this area.”

The benefits of the PCT and Wandsworth Council working together came up again in a discussion about children’s service and how a joint initiative could be established using pooled funds from both local government and health care organisations.

Unprecedented Response – reliable basis for decisions

The South Wandsworth Consultation in which we as a LINk were very much involved had seen an unprecedented level of response from a good cross section of people in the borough.  This means that the information is a reliable basis for future decisions about the service.

In the light of this successful consultation, it is a shame that work going on to decide where future savings could be made did not involve frequent service users. Andrew makes the point that the PCT’s

“customer insight was inadequate to the scale of the decisions we needed to take and this had to be addressed through our engagement efforts. Service users and the general public had to be brought on board with the rationale for this thinking. If they were not, the risk was considerable that reasonable intiatives to achieve efficiency would be misunderstood and rejected by the very people who should be helping to identify them.”

Better Data, Lower Score but Better Service

NHS Wandsworth had collected better information on its drug services which showed things to be worse than had been previously thought and meant they got a lower score on some of the Government’s targets. However the better data means better provision since managers now have a better understanding of what the needs are and how they might be met. Congratulations to the NHS Wandsworth for risking the consequences of getting low marks on central government targets in favour of better local service in the long run.

To view the PEC October 2009 Report document in full, please visit our Health & Social Care page.

Come and join our Open Discussion at the LINk Executive Committee meeting Monday 23rd November.

Wandsworth LINk will be holding its Executive Committee meeting on 23rd November at 7.30 at York Gardens Library, Battersea, Lavender Road, London, SW11 2UG. There will be a presentation on Hospital Discharge and care planning, followed by an open discussion. Please do come along and share your views.

Click here to view the agenda and minutes from the previous Executive Committee on 28th September.

We have renamed the Resources navigation tab on the website to ‘LINks Lookup‘ and moved the meeting minutes and policies files to their own tab called ‘LINk Minutes‘.

For the regular files for all Wandsworth LINk meetings and their resulting minutes can be found on the LINk Minutes page.

LINks Lookup is the place on the website where you can read about the activities of the Wandsworth LINk and other organisations in Wandsworth. We have provided weblinks to various information resources and help for people and organisations in Wandsworth. Check it out.

• Wandsworth LINk Events Diary
  Dates of upcoming Wandsworth LINk meetings & other events of interest
• Health & Social Care
  Current issues and actions in the Wandsworth health and social care scene
• Careline News
  News about social care and health services in Wandsworth published by Careline
• Patient Opinion
  Provides actionable feedback to NHS services in our borough
• Helpful websites
  Websites of interest to visitors to the WandsworthLINk website

Any questions please contact the LINk office.

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They have just released performance ratings, also known as ‘annual health checks’, for all NHS Trusts in England. The Commission rates each organisation as excellent, good, fair or weak – on both its overall quality and financial management. Each trust’s overall quality score is based on its performance against core standards, existing commitments, and national priorities. The assessment is based on the trusts’ performance between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009.

• Wandsworth Primary Care Trust scored FAIR on Quality of Services and GOOD on Quality of Financial Management. (Wandsworth Primary Care Trust Report PDF, 168Kb)
• South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust scored WEAK on Quality of Service and Good for Quality of Financial Management. (South West London and St George\’s Mental Health Trust Report PDF, 156Kb)
• St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust scored FAIR for both Quality or Service and Financial Management. (South West London and St George\’s Mental Health Trust Report PDF, 160Kb))

Click here to find out more about the assessments and the services local to you.

Join the Magnificent Seven

Seven people have signed up to be part of the Enter and View team of visitors. More are needed to cover the number of visits that may be required for the programme of visits and reports on premises where health and social care services are being used by Wandsworth residents.

Send in your application by Friday 30th October

Barbara Willerton and the LINk want to attract a diverse group of Wandsworth residents to work for users and patients, connect with them and represent their views. You will need some knowledge of health and care services either from work, volunteering or personal experience. You will get training and support and your out of pocket expenses will be paid.

All successful applicants have to go through a Criminal Records Bureau check and agree to have their names as LINk representatives published.

For more details and downloads see the Newsletter and our website or contact the LINk office at the usual address and phone number.

‘Tokenistic’ Consultations a thing of the past

Chair Jeremy Ambache intends to develop further the processes of involving people in Wandsworth health and social care consultations and make ‘tokenistic’ consultations a thing of the past.

The Newsletter talks about lots of different ways in which the LINk has made its views known in the past and the ways in which it will be contributing in future. You can click through to the full text at the end of this news item.

User Involvement Strategy & Transforming Adult Care

Two big topics are Wandsworth Council’s User Involvement Strategy and the process of transforming Adult Care. Irene Storer an LINk Executive Committee member tells us of what happened when the Council offered her the chance of a Direct Payment. Jenny Weinstein explains what is involved in transforming adult care – more control for users thanks to Personal or Individual budgets is a central message. How this is done may create problems for some users and LINk and the Council are working with a reference group of service users and carers to monitor how the project is being put into practice.

A new project and a new set of initials – IAPT

The newsletter mentions a new multi-million pound project to Improve Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT). A LINk person is on the IAPT Board and will be advocating the approach suggested by local networks such as the WCEN and BME networks. For more about these organisations see the newsletter.

Click here to download the LINk Newsletter September/October 2009 (PDF, 755KB)