Our case for change
Improving community healthcare in our region by bringing together Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust and Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.
“We are delighted to announce our plans to create a new organisation by bringing together our trusts. This is an exciting opportunity to really make things better for our patients and our staff, whilst also making our services stronger and more resilient.
We will be coming together to create a new group structure, which means that our two organisations remain in place but will have a single Board and executive leadership team.
This is the first time two high performing organisations have joined up – and we believe that by doing that, we can offer the best community care in the NHS.
We have so much in common as organisations. We both offer great care. We both focus on community services. We both work with adults and children. We both serve the wider East of England region, including Norfolk for both of us. We have similar objectives and similar values – including a laser focus on doing the right thing in working with and supporting our communities.
However we also complement each other well. We have strengths in different areas and we can support each other in areas where recruitment is difficult. This would make us stronger and more resilient, better able to cope with challenges and continue our focus on the needs of patients and service users. Meanwhile cost efficiencies – such as better buying power – will give us more funds to spend on care.
Here you can read more about why we think this is the best thing to do for the people we serve – the people using our services, the people providing them, and the wider community.
We’re looking forward to taking this journey together!”
— Matthew, Mary and Lynda
Better for patients and service users
This change will allow us to improve and standardise the experience of patients, taking the best from both organisations.
Collectively we can build stronger children’s services. By bringing our teams together with a single leadership team, we can focus on combining our strength and resources to better support children and young people. We believe this multidisciplinary, community-focused approach will lead to significant advancements in the support and health outcomes for young people.
For like-for-like services provided in different geographies, we can drive the benefits of working together by testing, spreading and adopting new ways of working across areas – finding the very best approaches for our communities.
By creating a single community care organisation, we also reduce duplication, handovers and inefficiencies – in turn making a more seamless experience for patients and service users.
While achieving best practice across all areas matters, we don’t lose sight of the importance of responding to local needs. Our new organisation will be committed to flexible care options that are best practice, but also meeting the needs of different populations. For example, both organisations offer virtual wards. By working together we can develop effective, high-quality care that supports patients at home – care that is seen as better in its own right, and not simply an alternative to hospital.
Better for staff
We know our staff want to deliver the very best care in a compassionate way. So all the changes that improve care for patients and service users, will also make work more rewarding and meaningful for those providing the care too.
The changes will also improve opportunities for career and personal development. The new organisation will provide shared training and education resources to support, develop and retain high quality professionals. It will open up new opportunities for career advancement too, with new roles for those looking to advance, stretch themselves or move into different roles without needing to leave us.
The changes will also mean we will be able to fill our gaps in expertise, both by sharing resources and being better placed to attract people to join us. This applies to patient facing roles, but also to the teams that wraparound to support our frontline teams, such as safeguarding, digital design, clinical engineering, workforce planning and co-production with patients. This will help colleagues access the support and services they need to provide the very best care.
Better for all
We are both small organisations, which can create challenges in attracting staff, responding to peaks in demand within small teams, responding to increasingly complex patient health issues and succession planning. Coming together makes us more resilient and better able to support our communities now and in the future.
With public finances being challenged, it is right to reduce costs and duplication by operating as one, rather than separately. We aspire to operate with an overhead cost of 12-13%, making savings of £4 million to £5.5 million over a two to three-year period, including through introducing a single Executive Team and Board. We will also have greater collective buying power so we can get better value for goods and services. These savings can be passed to frontline services.
Both organisations are already working to reduce health inequalities, to give all a better chance of a long, healthy life. By working together, we can make greater progress – for example by improving our children’s services, providing more tailored services and providing a unified voice to advocate for patients' needs, ensuring that patient interests are well-represented in policy discussions and service planning.
By combining, we also have an opportunity to drive innovation to improve care. As a small organisation areas like digital innovation can be challenging to deliver alone. By working together, we can progress work like advanced telehealth, a common patient portal, and integrated electronic patient records. These technological advancements will enhance care coordination and patient access to services. Similarly enhanced research capacity will enable bidding for larger, competitive grants, leading to significant advancements in medical science and patient care practices
Timeline
Both of our Boards have been carefully reviewing this proposal and developing a detailed case for change. The direction was approved at a joint Board meeting on 24 July.
The next steps and governance arrangements will be worked through between now and January 2025. The intention is to have a single Board appointed and the group model live by April 2025.
Downloads
Any questions
You can visit our frequently asked questions for more information. If you still have questions please use our contact form.