Date	Time	Venue	Eventbrite
Saturday 25th January 2020	10am – 12pm	Heritage Park, Stadium Way, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland DL14 9AE	Register
Tuesday 4th February 2020	6pm – 8pm	Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham DH1 3NJ	Register
Thursday 6th February 2020	10am – 12pm	The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle DL12 8LY	Register
Tuesday 11th February 2020	1pm – 3pm	St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Larchfield Street, Darlington DL3 7TG	Register
Thursday 27th February 2020	2pm – 4pm	Scout Centre, Kingsway, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7JN	Register

The NHS organisations responsible for planning and paying for health services in County Durham and Darlington are today launching a 10-week public consultation on proposals affecting stroke rehabilitation services at Bishop Auckland Hospital.

NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Darlington CCG and NHS North Durham CCG are working together with County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) in an effort to ensure care is accessible and meets the needs of the whole population across County Durham and Darlington.

We’re Listening info-graphic

Following the pause due to the general election, we wanted to take this opportunity to share a brief summary of some of the comments that had been received through the work undertaken prior to ‘purdah’ coming into effect. You can see a snapshot of this information in our infographic.

What happens at the moment?

At the moment, the majority of the local population who have had a suspected stroke are taken to the hyperacute stroke ward (Ward 2) at the University Hospital of North Durham (UHND).

On average, patients will spend two to three days being treated on the ward and the majority (80%) then either go home, to a residential or nursing care home, or to intermediate care.  Intermediate care is where someone is medically fit but requires a little more therapy support before going home.

For those who require longer term acute specialist stroke rehabilitation they are currently transferred to Bishop Auckland Hospital.  This is about 20% of the total number of strokes who start their care at ward 2 at UHND.

Those patients who transfer to the stroke rehabilitation ward at Bishop Auckland Hospital stay there on average for nearly three weeks.  After that, patients who are well enough go home do so with further therapy provided in the community.  Others are discharged to a community hospital such as the Richardson Community Hospital in Barnard Castle or Chester-le-Street Community Hospital, or receive ongoing care in a nursing or residential home.

The feedback we have received from patients and their families has identified the need for better transition between hospital and community based services.  The feedback also highlighted that more needed to be done to ensure specialist community stroke services are accessible and effective.

What might change?

The CCGs within County Durham and Darlington are committed to more effective community services which are person-centred and deliver care closer to home where possible.

The CCGs are consulting on two options:

Option One – Maintain current services, nothing will change

Option Two – Consolidate stroke rehab services at the University Hospital of North Durham, alongside the current hyperacute stroke unit and ensure robust pathway between hospital and community.

The CCGs’ preferred option is option two.  This is because the CCGs feel that there should be:

• An improved focus on prevention
• a more consistent and equitable service for patients across County Durham and Darlington
• A model of care that will help to recruit and retain staff

The CCGs are keen to hear the views of current patients and families as well as the wider population of County Durham and Darlington and key stakeholders during the consultation, which will run from Tuesday 14 January 2020 until Tuesday 03 March 2020.

As part of the consultation, there are a number of ways that people can have their say:

Survey

Complete the online survey, or alternatively, if you would prefer to complete a paper version, please call 0191 389 8609 please leave your name, email or home address and phone number or you can email my.view@nhs.net.

Online

Further information is available on the CCG websites. See details below or by emailing My.view@nhs.net, or via telephone 0191 389 8609.

Public meeting

Come along to one of the public consultation meetings.  Four meetings have been arranged across the area:

Date	Time	Venue	Eventbrite
Saturday 25th January 2020	10am – 12pm	Heritage Park, Stadium Way, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland DL14 9AE	Register
Tuesday 4th February 2020	6pm – 8pm	Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham DH1 3NJ	Register
Thursday 6th February 2020	10am – 12pm	The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle DL12 8LY	Register
Tuesday 11th February 2020	1pm – 3pm	St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Larchfield Street, Darlington DL3 7TG	Register
Thursday 27th February 2020	2pm – 4pm	Scout Centre, Kingsway, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7JN	Register

If you would like to attend a meeting, please register at one of the above events or 0191 3898609 and please leave your name, email or home address and phone number and which event you would like to attend. Or you can email my.view@nhs.net.

Consultation documents

Stroke rehabilitation consultation document
Stroke rehab consultation summary document
Stroke consultation easy read summary document
Stroke easy read survey
Stroke consultation stakeholder briefing
Stroke consultation press release 
CD Stroke Business Case Proposal
Stroke Engagement Report August 2019
Stroke consultation and Communications Plan August 2019
Stroke rehabilitation consultation poster 

Date	Time	Venue	Eventbrite
Thursday January 30th 2020	10am – 12pm	Great Hall, Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham DH1 3NJ	Register
Saturday February 8th 2020	10am – 12pm	The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle DL12 8LY	Register
Wednesday February 12th 2020	6pm – 8pm	Heritage Park, Stadium Way, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland DL14 9AE	Register
Tuesday February 25th 2020	1pm – 3pm	St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Larchfield Street, Darlington DL3 7TG	Register

PATIENTS are to be offered the opportunity to get back into their own homes sooner with a proposal to increase hospital rehabilitation support.

NHS Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), North Durham CCG and Darlington CCG have launched a ten-week public consultation to review the services on Ward 6, Bishop Auckland Hospital.

The 24-bed ward currently delivers nurse- led step down care for patients, many of who are medically well but unable to return home immediately.

The existing Ward 6 service provides limited therapy input and is not a specific rehabilitation facility. Beds on Ward 6 have been used for patients waiting for packages of care or other assessments to assist them before they return home.

Following a review of services, a clinically based proposal has been put forward by the CCG to repurpose the unit into an inpatient rehabilitation facility, offering patients dedicated therapy support to help them leave hospital sooner and get back to where they live.

We’re Listening infographic

Following the pause due to the general election, we wanted to take this opportunity to share a brief summary of some of the comments that had been received through the work undertaken prior to ‘purdah’ coming into effect. You can see a snapshot of this information in our Ward 6 – ‘We’re Listening’ Info-graphic

Have your say

There are a number of ways that you will be able to contribute to the discussions as part of the consultation.

Online

An electronic version of the questionnaire is available for you to complete to share your thoughts and views regarding the options presented in the consultation.

Getting in touch with us

You can share your thoughts and comments by getting in touch with the CCG directly through either using the contact email address and answerphone shown below. You can also use these details to register for the public events

Email – my.view@nhs.net

Answerphone – 0191 389 8609

In person

As part of the consultation we will be holding four public events. These will be 2 hour meetings providing opportunities for you to hear presentations from the CCG and Foundation Trust about the options presented and to share your views. To help us support the events effectively, please use the online link included in the table below (or the contact details above) to inform us which event you are looking to attend.

Date	Time	Venue	Eventbrite
Thursday January 30th 2020	10am – 12pm	Great Hall, Durham Town Hall, Market Place, Durham DH1 3NJ	Register
Saturday February 8th 2020	10am – 12pm	The Witham, 3 Horse Market, Barnard Castle DL12 8LY	Register
Wednesday February 12th 2020	6pm – 8pm	Heritage Park, Stadium Way, St Helen Auckland, Bishop Auckland DL14 9AE	Register
Tuesday February 25th 2020	1pm – 3pm	St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Larchfield Street, Darlington DL3 7TG	Register

More information

Ward 6 consultation document
Ward 6 consultation summary document
Healthwatch Engagement Report – Ward 6 Bishop Auckland Hospital
Inpatient Rehabilitation Business Case Proposal
Ward 6 Frequently Asked Questions
Ward 6 Resumed Stakeholder Briefing
Ward 6 Resumed Consultation Press release
Ward 6 consultation poster 

The Clinical Commissioning Group on Tees (Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG and South Tees CCG) have been working on how psychological wellbeing and therapy services are provided across Tees and how they might be provided in future. This follows release of the NHS Long Term Plan and the need to increase access to psychological therapy.

During April 2018, we talked to service users and local stakeholders to gather views about the draft model for the new service. This was to ensure that all views are fed into the proposed expanded IAPT model to deliver the best psychological wellbeing and therapy services for people living and working on Teesside.

An online survey was used for past and present services users, stakeholders and members of the public to have their say and provide their feedback and views on the proposed model.

Based on the feedback the CCGs want to:

• Ensure that systems and processes within the expanded model support patient choice and flexible options for service access and assessment
• Ensure that a full range of evidenced-based therapies are available
• Ensure that people are getting access to evidenced-based psychological treatment/interventions at the earliest opportunity
• Ensure that treatment/interventions are identified based upon the assessed need of the individual
• Ensure that screening and assessment processes are standardised and that all assessments are carried out by an appropriately trained clinician
• Provide a service that proactively supports people with long-term conditions with their mental wellbeing

Background

The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme began nationally in 2008 to transform the treatment of adult anxiety disorders and depression in England. Talking therapies are a proven, effective way of helping people with emotional and mental health problems like depression, anxiety and stress. They help work out how to deal with negative thoughts and feelings and make positive changes. The programme now aims to increase the number of people seen and treated from 900,000 in 2015 to 1.5 million in 2021 (an increase of 66%, nationally). Two thirds of the expansion will focus on people with long-term conditions including persistent physical symptoms.

Psychological therapy services are required to provide evidence based psychological therapies that are approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Current Services

For current referrals our providers through ‘We Can Talk’ remain in place until 1st April 2020. For further details please visit We Can Talk

Future Updates

From 1st April 2020 a new Psychological Wellbeing and Therapy service, including current talking therapy services (IAPT), will be provided by a new partnership of organisations.

This new service will be called IMPACT on Teesside and will replace the current NHS Any Qualified Provider Model, which is delivered by 5 different providers locally, with a single service provision.

It will also incorporate the Wellbeing and Outreach support currently provided through the Living Life services in South Tees (provided by Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind) and Mind Skills Recovery College in North Tees (provided by Hartlepool Mind).

The partnership delivering IMPACT on Teesside includes:

• Alliance Psychological Services Limited
• Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind
• Insight Healthcare
• TEWV NHS Foundation Trust.

The CCGs, the new IMPACT partnership and the outgoing providers will collaborate to undertake a seamless transition to the new service; and a joint transition plan has been robustly developed and is now being implemented to achieve this.

Please continue referring and encouraging self-referrals into the service in the usual way. All current providers will be continuing to book and deliver appointments as normal up to, throughout and beyond the transition period, and your patients/clients should experience no disruption at the point of service transfer.

Prior to transfer, all referred patients in treatment or waiting to be seen will receive a short letter to advise them of change in provider and transfer of their data if relevant to them. This is a necessary step to comply with GDPR legislation and allow anyone to ‘opt out’ if they so wish, although in practice this very rarely happens.

The IMPACT partnership and our mobilisation team are really looking forward to working with partner agencies across Tees in new ways and would very much like to meet as many GPs, practice managers and staff and other referrers as soon as possible. If you would like a visit or a telephone call then please let us know and this will be arranged for you.

Key contact address for all enquiries is enquiries@impactonteesside.com

Key contacts for the mobilisation team are;

• Anne Drummond – Director, Alliance Psychological Services Limited
• Stephanie Pederson – Mobilisation Project Manager, Alliance Psychological Services Limited
• Emma Howitt – CEO, Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind
• Liam Gilfellon – Director of Service Development and Programmes, Insight Healthcare
• Deborah Wright – Locality Manager (Redcar & Cleveland AMH & Crisis Services Teesside), TEWV NHS Foundation Trust

In 2018 NHS Hartlepool & Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) consulted with parents about their experience of the Autism pathway, to understand more around the gaps in support.

The Stockton Parent Carer Forum and 1 Hart, I Mind, 1 Future Parent Carer Forum in Hartlepool provided invaluable advice as to the wording of the survey and supported us in the distribution. Across Hartlepool & Stockton we received 140 responses. To enhance the responses we received, we attended Parent Carer Forum meetings to hear people’s views and to enable a 2 way conversation to take place as to how things needed to be improved.

They key messages which came out of the consultation were:

• Unclear processes
• Poor communication between organisations and with parent/carers
• Lack of support for behaviour, anxiety, sensory, practical, siblings, social & emotional welfare
• There was also significant differences in the support children received in school depending on where they attended

To begin to meet these needs, we are working with Daisychain to pilot a Family Support service. To access this service, children will not need to have a diagnosis –they will have to have a need which could be linked to a Neurodevelopmental problem such as ASD or ADHD.

We worked with the Parent Carer Forums leads to develop a service specification which was flexible enough to begin to meet the needs identified. The service will have a weekly drop in facility in both Hartlepool & Stockton and will also offer:

• Support on a one to one basis with families
• Workshops/training which parents will be able to access. For example; behaviour, practical tips/skills etc.
• Support for children, young people and their siblings

The Parent Carer Forums have agreed to review the service with us to ensure it meets the needs of parents and children in Hartlepool & Stockton.

In addition to this new service, working groups have been established to look at developing a needs led pathway of support which will lead to a more co-ordinated response from health, local authority, education and voluntary and community groups.  This group is looking at how existing services can be improved or reshaped to meet the presenting needs of children and their families. There is a parent carer representative on these groups and we are currently developing a plan as to how a wider parent carer voice can be captured.

The CCG and Local Authority has agreed to attend parent carer forums to ensure we keep families up to date as things progress and to listen to feedback with regard to  what is and isn’t working.

Final decision following public consultation

Final decision following public consultation – Easy read version

Following the  public consultation, the NHS on Teesside has agreed to introduce changes to respite services for adults (18+) with a learning disability, complex needs and/or autism. The decision taken by both NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-On-Tees (HAST) Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS South Tees CCG at the Governing Body In-Common on 1^st February 2018 agreed to commission a range of services to improve choice whilst recognising the importance of retaining the current facilities available.

This means that bed based services will continue to be delivered from 2 Bankfields Court in Middlesbrough and Aysgarth in Stockton-on-Tees. Other changes to be implemented to make the service more equitable for people with a learning disability include:

• Changing the assessment and allocations process, making it more needs led;
• Offering more choice and improved focus on the needs of people with a learning disability and their carers and families;
• Buying flexible community-based respite services and clinically-led outreach support services so that people with a learning disability can choose from a range of respite activities with the appropriate support they need.

The decision follows extensive feedback from people who currently access services, their families and carers, and other key stakeholders as part of the 10-week formal public consultation process, which ran from September to November 2017.

The CCGs are pleased to support the recommended changes and would like to thank all those who contributed to the consultation; from people who access current services and their families and carers to key stakeholders such as our local authorities for their participation and feedback which has made this a truly participative process. We know how much the existing services and staff mean to people. We heard first-hand at our public consultation events the impact the services have on families across South Tees and the Hartlepool and Stockton areas.

All the feedback received from the consultation; including both verbal and completed questionnaires; was vitally important in helping the CCGs make an informed decision on the future of learning disability services, and a decision that we believe reflects the majority view of people who took part in the consultation process.

Ali Wilson, Chief Officer of NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG, and Amanda Hume, Chief Officer of NHS South Tees CCG

Following the outcome of the decision making in relation to the future of respite services for people with Learning Disabilities and complex needs on 1 February 2018, the CCGs are keen to continue to involve families and carers in how future services are developed. If you are interested in working with the CCGs on the further development of the proposals then please email the North of England Commissioning Support engagement team at necsu.engagement@nhs.net or telephone 0191 374 2795.  

Reports on the public consultation (held from 4 September 2017 to 10 November 2017)

The independent report of the public consultation on learning disability respite services has been published and is available to download below:

Independent consultation report
Easy read of independent consultation report

Pre-consultation background documents

Consultation narrative document
Easy read consultation narrative
Consultation booklet
Stakeholder briefing
Press release
Frequently Asked Questions
Case for Change
Consultation events poster
Engagement session for voluntary sector organisations
Equality Impact Assessment

Previous engagement

Easy read Document – Review of Respite Services for people with learning disabilities and complex needs

The CCGs worked in partnership with the four Local Authorities across the South Tees and Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees areas to ensure that the review considered complex health and social care needs.

The aim of the review was to ensure that health respite services appropriately meet the needs of the local population now and into the future and it was carried out in the context of the Transforming Care programme.

Transforming Care is a programme of work to enable more people with learning disabilities and/or autism who have complex needs to live in the community, with the right support and close to home. More information about Transforming Care is available on the NHS England website or the North East and Cumbria Learning Disabilities Transformation Programme website

Both Transforming Care and the NHS Five Year Forward View include a strong emphasis on personalised care and support planning, personal budgets and personal health budgets to put people at the centre of their care to enable maximum choice and control about how their own needs are met.

The review of health respite services for people with learning disabilities will help the CCGs to make sure that families and carers of people with learning disabilities and complex needs are supported, valued and recognised within their roles.

As part of the review, the CCGs talked to people with learning disabilities and complex needs, and their families and carers, to understand more about:

• What the expression ‘respite services’ means to them
• What they think works well with current respite services
• How they think respite services could be improved.

Engagement activity took place from December 2016 until the end of February 2017. This included discussion groups and questionnaires. The aim was to ensure that people with learning disabilities, their families and carers are influential in the development of appropriate services to meet their needs now and into the future.

To ensure that people with learning disabilities and complex needs can have their say, the CCGs are working in partnership with Inclusion North, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the inclusion of people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.

A questionnaire was developed for families and carers that could be completed online or if preferred, downloaded, printed and returned to the FREEPOST address on the questionnaire (no stamp required). Alternatively, printed copies were available on request.

The engagement activity helped to inform the development of a number of possible ‘scenarios’ for the provision of health respite services for people with learning disabilities in the future. These scenarios will be ideas on how learning disability respite services could be further developed or delivered differently to best meet the needs of the local population.

It is important to note that there were no fundamental changes to the type of respite services available for people with learning disabilities while the review was conducted. Following the review, scenarios that are developed that are viable and sustainable in the longer term may be taken forward as proposals for change to improve respite services.

Any proposals for significant change will be subject to formal consultation with people who use respite services and the wider public. If any proposals for change are not significant, these will be subject to a further period of informal engagement, as opposed to formal public consultation.

The CCGs produced a Respite needs and responsibilities paper.  This contained background information to help people take part in the review.

Please see full post review engagement report attached below, a summary of the engagement report, easy read version of the summary and newsletter.

HaST STees Respite Review Engagement Report
Easy Read engagement summary
Engagement summary
Newsletter

Engagement began in late April 2018 with children, young people and their parents/ carers and involved schools to find out about their experiences of accessing Children’s Therapy services (0-19 years) and the way they are delivered.

The engagement was predominantly aimed at families with children / young people with complex needs such as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) as well as involving those without complex needs.

The discussions helped us to understand what would work best for children’s complex needs, what is important to them and when they need therapy services. We wanted to find out:

• What do parent and carers think their children’s needs are?
• What is required to keep them safe and be able to achieve in the school day?
• From a health perspective what do they want from each service?

We spoke to children, young people and their parents/ carers through the therapy services and those attending groups such as the Investing in Children eXtreme group. Links with established groups such as health networks and the Making Changes Together Conference in May 2018.

The period of engagement is now complete. Please see the final Summary Engagement Report

Five health commissioners across Durham and Teesside are working together to re- procure the Direct Access to Adult Hearing Services for Age Related Hearing Loss – Audiology Services and we would like your views to help us do that.

Background

The impact of hearing loss in adults can be immense both at a personal and a societal level leading to social isolation, depression, loss of independence and employment challenges.
Assessing the needs of patients with hearing difficulty and developing an individual management plan which provides appropriate interventions can reduce isolation, facilitate continued integration with society and promote independent living.

The ageing population means that demand for both hearing assessment and treatment services is likely to rise substantially over the coming years.  However, a significant proportion of this client group will have straightforward hearing loss that does not require referral for an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) out-patient appointment prior to assessment.  These patients would benefit from direct access to adult hearing care services with a referral being made directly from their General Practitioner (GP) enabling timely diagnosis and treatment.

One in six people in the UK has some form of hearing loss.  Most are elderly people who are gradually losing their hearing as part of the ageing process, with more than 70% of over 70 year-olds and 40% of over 50 year-olds having some form of hearing loss.

The aim of the service is to provide a comprehensive, patient-centered, direct access adult hearing service for age-related hearing loss in line with national guidance and local requirements.

Stakeholder Briefing

Why Does it Need to Change?

It is recognised that continued increases in activity are not financially sustainable and other contracting models and financial payment methods should be explored to offer CCGs increased levels of sustainability within financially pressured times. Alternative models have therefore been considered.

How You Can Get Involved

A period of 8 weeks public engagement will begin on Monday 14th May 2018 until Friday 6th July 2018. We will be gathering the views of service users and local stakeholders about their experience of the current service and seeking suggestions on how to improve a future service.

Please note: The survey is now closed

You can get involved by completing an online questionnaire, using the following web link .

If you have any queries or require assistance completing the online survey, please contact the Communications and Engagement team on 01642 745 401 / 0191 374 2795 or at NECSU.engagement@nhs.net

Following a period of engagement and review, in October 2018, a procurement process was undertaken to procure a Direct Access Adult Hearing Service. The procurement has been extended  to allow for further work to be undertaken and we expect the new service to be in place on 1^st September 2019.

County Durham and Darlington Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust are currently reviewing community provision for stroke.

The review will look at the current pathway which includes the specialist stroke rehabilitation provision at Bishop Auckland Hospital, as well as rehabilitation provision outside the hospital in the community.

The engagement activity will run from Thursday 4 October 2018 until Friday 30 November 2018.

The CCGs would like to hear from patients who have experienced a stroke and / or their families/carers and would like to give us their views of their experience of the rehabilitation services.

How to get involved

Please Note: This phase of engagement is now complete

You can get involved by completing a survey

If you are an organisation/group, and have any forthcoming meetings which will include stroke patients, families/carers, which are due to be held within the engagement period, we would like the opportunity to attend, to gather views and discuss the review. Could you please email NECSU.engagement@nhs.net or call 0191 374 2795 with details to arrange attendance.

This will help the CCGs provide a service that delivers care closer to home where possible, and more continuity of care.

Please find below the stakeholder briefing, which provides background and further information on this review.

Stroke Rehabilitation Stakeholder Briefing

There are plans for a second phase of engagement and details of that will be published here shortly.

Plans to retain fertility services at University Hospital of Hartlepool have today (28 July 2016) been rubber stamped by the local NHS.  NHS Hartlepool and Stockton CCG will now start a procurement exercise to attract a new provider to deliver fertility services.

The new arrangements follow a 6 week public consultation held from 31 May to 17 July 2016.  The CCG consulted the public on the following three options:

• Option 1:  A comprehensive assisted reproductive service including HFEA Licensed and unlicensed provision remains at Hartlepool delivered by an alternative provider.
• Option 2:  Unlicensed assisted reproductive services continue to be delivered at Hartlepool and patients requiring licenced provision choose to go to an alternative site e.g. James Cook University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Gateshead and Newcastle Fertility Centre at the Centre for Life.
• Option 3:  A comprehensive assisted reproductive service including HFEA Licensed and unlicensed provision will no longer be available at Hartlepool but will be delivered at other sites in the region.

Option 1 was ranked the highest of the three options. 58% ranked this option as the first preferred choice, with just 19% ranking this option second and another 23% ranking this option third.

Option 2 was ranked second highest of the three options. 23% ranked this option as the first preferred choice, with 63% ranking this option second and 14% ranking this option third.

Option 3 was ranked lowest of the three options. 22% ranked this option as the first preferred choice, with 17% ranking this option second and 61% ranking this option third.

*The number of respondents in this question varies and is lower than the total number of respondents because not all paper surveys were completed in full.

In total 1220 questionnaire responses were received during a comprehensive consultation programme that included public meetings, focus groups and other media such as digital and paper surveys.

On the evening of Tuesday 26 July, the CCG’s Governing Body, made up from local GPs, NHS managers and lay members considered feedback from the public and the advice from the Clinical Senate and agreed to progress proposals to retain a service in Hartlepool.

What happens next?

The CCG will work closely with the current provider NHS North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust to ensure the current service is sustained whilst a new provider is identified and they commence the service.  Patients will be able to access services in exactly the same way as they do now.

One of the main themes from the public consultation was how much people valued the current service based in Hartlepool. I’d like to thank everyone who took part in our engagement work and contributed to the public consultation by attending one of our meetings or completing a questionnaire. That feedback has been vital in helping us to consider how we meet the needs of local people and design sustainable services for the future.

Ali Wilson, Chief Officer of the CCG

Further information

Full details and background on the public consultation.
See the Equality Impact Assessment Report
See the ARU Scrutiny Presentation
HAST ARU Final Report

For further information, contact the North of England Commissioning Support communications team on 01642 745401 or email NECSU.Info-Comms@nhs.net

During the summer of 2019, we engaged with parents and carers to understand what services they are likely to utilise when their child is unwell (non-elective admissions) and what they would do if their child was poorly during particular times of the day.

Surveys were distributed in paper format and as an electronic link to Public Health staff within the local authorities and to health visitors and schools nurses.  The information was used to support how to better engage with parents and carers around accessing services but also how we could support parents/carers to be confident to manage common childhood illnesses more effectively.

Feedback also helped to develop ‘Poorly Child Pathways’ across the North Tees area, to ensure that the most appropriate services are being utilised in order to avoid unnecessary paediatric admissions into secondary care.

We engaged with Parents and carers of children accessing the Speech & Language Therapy (SALT), who completed a survey which was used to support a review of the service, including the development and implementation of a 17 point action plan to improve service delivery with a focus on access and waiting times.

Feedback from the survey highlighted that parents didn’t know what to expect from the service and as a result we have worked with them to develop an information leaflet that is available prior to a referral being made.

Parents also said that there were long waiting times for the service and we have introduced a number of improvements to tackle this including weekly triage, standard operating procedures in the service to improve efficiency, an improved assessment process and revised care pathways all of which have helped contribute to reduce waiting times to access the service from 18 weeks to seven weeks or less in some cases.

Stoma patients in Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland are being supported to better manage their condition with direct access to improved support. The CCG worked closely with patients, patient groups and Stoma clinicians to implement changes to the way patients order their prescriptions.

Stoma nurses engaged with the ‘OOPS’ group (Optimistic Ostomate Peers Support) Stoma support group through face to face discussions, to gather patient feedback.

Using the information and feedback from patients we have made improvements to the service so that patients can ring a dedicated community stoma prescription supply service in order to speak with a trained member of staff who will process their prescription request.

Patients now have access to a Stoma Nurse and can book into a specialist clinic setting, when needed. The CCG’s Patient Participation Advisory Group were presented with information about the new ways of working and have welcomed improvements to the service.

In the South Tees area, the CCG engaged with its member practices and patient groups to share a toolkit regarding Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Following attendance at the local authority’s Health Scrutiny Panel where this issues was raised, the CCG met with members of the panel to discuss and take on board feedback they had received from a cohort of patients.  Using the insights and information that had been obtained from these patients, the CCG met with South Tees clinicians to discuss issues and barriers to care. Since then changes that have been made have been positively welcomed by the cohort of patients who have said they have already noticed a difference when interacting with and using services.

The CCG plans to continue the dialogue with these patients so it becomes part of a normal cycle of feedback being used as part of the commissioning and improvement process for this service.

NHS South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been engaging with patients and carers throughout the process of developing a Falls Prevention Strategy.  Throughout 2019 we have held stakeholder engagement with older people both online and via Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations to seek out patient views.

The engagement has been in relation to marketing for the strategy, the online development of a self-assessment tool and online self-management tool.

The CCG undertook further engagement with older people who have accessed some of the community-based falls prevention programmes to ascertain the value and outcomes of the exercise programme of minimising the risk of falls. This has been positive and helped secure further funding via the voluntary sector.

We are working closely with Public Health England and libraries team, along with the falls service, to promote a slipper exchange within the South Tees area. This will reduce the risk of falls by giving older people a pair of slippers in place of their current pair. The elderly patients are also provided with information about falls prevention during a slipper exchange.

Integrated Children’s Therapies

Engagement began in late April 2018 with children, young people and their parents/ carers and involved schools to find out about their experiences of accessing Children’s Therapy services (0-19 years) and the way they are delivered.

The engagement was predominantly aimed at families with children / young people with complex needs such as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) as well as involving those without complex needs.

The discussions helped us to understand what would work best for children’s complex needs, what is important to them and when they need therapy services. We wanted to find out:

• What do parent and carers think their children’s needs are?
• What is required to keep them safe and be able to achieve in the school day?
• From a health perspective what do they want from each service?

We spoke to children, young people and their parents/ carers through the therapy services and those attending groups such as the Investing in Children eXtreme group. Links with established groups such as health networks and the Making Changes Together Conference in May 2018.

The period of engagement is now complete. Please see the final summary engagement report

The Better Health Programme is now completed. The site has been archived online.