We are working to ensure that children on the Isle of Wight are supported to get the best start in life that will lead to good health and wellbeing. This will provide the foundation to ensure they are able to achieve the best opportunities and keep as healthy and well as possible throughout their lives.
We want to ensure that families, individuals and communities are thriving and resilient with access to good jobs, affordable housing, leisure activities, lifelong training, education and learning, health and care services are are able to enjoy the place in which they live.
We want to ensure that people on the Isle of Wight are able to live independently in their own homes with appropriate care support. We want to make sure older residents are supported to play an active role in their communities and supported to maintain and develop their social and community networks.
We wanted to let you know more about the plans to transform and improve the way health and care is provided the Island. This work is being led by the Local Care Board and here we share some more information about the make up of that board and its key priorities.
What is the Local Care Board?
The Local Care Board has been established to unite efforts to transform and improve the way health and care is provided on the Island so that, in line with the Island's Health & Wellbeing Strategy, people can stay well, live well and age well.
The Board is made up of the senior officers from the organisations who provide and commission the Island's health and care services including the Isle of Wight Council, the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group and the Isle of Wight NHS Trust. It's core aim is to ensure that the needs of patients and communities are held above those of the individual organisations.
The group meets regularly and is also supported by an independent chair and a programme director.
Who are we?
The Local Care Board draws together a wealth of experience from the statutory providers of health and social care on the Island as well as expertise from the private sector. The board members are:
Our Local Care Plan
The Local Care Board has agreed a four-year Local Care Plan 2017-2021 which has identified and prioritised the changes required to improve care across the Island. It builds upon the Island's shared vision of providing high quality, sustainable care, centred around the person and delivered in a more coordinated way, closer to home. The six core priorities within the plan are detailed below:
Acute Service Redesign
- acute services are those where a patient receives typically short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery. This is a very important part of the NHS's work and we are exploring changes to the way we provide this type of care to ensure Islanders have access to high quality, affordable services that we can sustain into the future.
Co-ordinated Access - We have already combined health and care services into one hub at St Mary's hospital. This means the relevant services are all represented in the same building and can exchange information to ensure callers to the hospital, to 999 and 111 get the best and most appropriate response. We will be looking to expand this type of inter-service co-operation.
Community Service Redesign - We are working towards a model where as much care as possible can be provider closer to people's homes. To help this, the Island has been divided into three localities where primary care, community health and social services are all provided in a co-ordinated way. There is also a special focus on recovery and reablement services (for example, the type of services that help people to recover after a hospital stay) and on tackling issues associated with frailty, which affects our elderly population.
Hospital to Home - We want to minimise, where appropriate, the amount of time spent in hospital. The aim is to support people to enable them to return home so they can continue their recovery in a familiar and more suitable environment and we can ensure hospital beds are available for those who are most in need of them.
Mental Health Recovery - We are working on a plan to transform and improve mental health care which includes three key initiatives: Rehabilitation and Reablement - making sure the best treatment is provided in the optimum and most appropriate location; Acute Pathway Re-design - ensuring 24/7 access to the most appropriate care setting including a 'Safe Haven' and the development of an in-reach/out-reach acute model of care which supports people in an environment most suited to their needs; Community Pathway Re-design - delivering appropriate integrated community services focussing on supporting people early on to prevent them from needing inpatient treatment.
Transforming Learning Disabilities - Reducing reliance on institutional care through a major review of the way learning disabilities and social care are provided. The programme focuses on creating a better, more joined-up approach which will enable people to have more independence through closer working between health and social care and by offering a wider selection of support.
You can read a full copy of the plan on our website here.
If you have any queries regarding the work of the Local Care Board, please contact Rachael Knight, Programme Governance Manager at rachael.knight@iow.nhs.uk or email us at hello@mylifeafulllife.com or contact us using the form on this site.
