In the current national health and social care environment, it is more important than ever to have a place for the whole system to come together in a strong and inclusive membership body.
It is also important that different parts of the system are supported and can come together to tackle issues of shared concern. Following consultation with members, the NHS Confederation is keen to support all organisations that provide community health services for the NHS to ensure this crucial sector has an influential voice.
Using the feedback from a focus group held earlier this year we have developed a service offer specifically for all providers of community health services.
What is the Community Health Services Forum?
The Community Health Services Forum represents the majority of community health services in the NHS. It provides a voice for such services to help policy-makers with the development of national policy, and to inform debate.
About community health services
Community health services are those NHS services delivered in a community setting or in the patient’s home. Although they are less visible than hospitals, these services cover an extensive and varied range of services costing over £11 billion per annum and employing some 250,000 staff.
Core services include community nurses and health visitors.
Specialist services can also include podiatry, speech and language therapy, school nursing, and health promotion. Some community health services (depending on local arrangements) also encompass maternity services, mental health, children’s centres, carer support, sexual health, and prison health.
Many patients receiving care in the community are seriously ill – community health services staff are skilled professionals whose roles extend to caring for the most vulnerable in our society, such as very ill children who have to use ventilators.
Community health services used to constitute parts of Primary Care Trusts. However, in line with the Government’s policy to separate the commissioning and provision of services, the majority of organisations are now integrated with other healthcare providers.
The potential of community health services to help deliver the reforms
The NHS Chief Executive has previously described community health services as being ‘mission critical’ to the NHS, offering opportunities to release quality and productivity improvements in the rest of the NHS.
Given their size, presence in the community, and historically close working relationship with general practitioners, community health services are well placed to deliver improvements that strike at the heart of the Government’s reform agenda.
They have the ability to:
- Provide more personalised services for patients closer to home
- Lead efforts on prevention and wellness services
- Allow people to avoid unnecessary admission into hospital, and to leave hospital sooner
- Work closely with GP commissioners given their historically close working relationship.
- Keep people independent
- Contribute to improvements in clinical outcomes
We believe community health services will play a vital role in helping to improve patient outcomes across the NHS.