Community Services

What are Community Services?

Community Services is a general description that is used to cover a wide range of mental and physical health & wellbeing services provided to many, often vulnerable, people, families and communities. These services range from health promotion to end of life care, falls prevention to prison in-reach services and include health visiting, district nursing and community mental health services, learning disability services and sexual health clinics.

The Services

On the 1st July 2011, Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) took on responsibility for the delivery of a range of community services that had previously been provided by Northamptonshire Provider Services (NPS). These services fall into five categories:

Information about the specific services offered can be accessed by clicking on the category headings above or through the menu on the left.

Transforming Community Services

In 2009 the Government set out an expectation that healthcare commissioning organisations would no longer be able to provide healthcare services. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were asked to identify solutions to separate their commissioner (buying) and provider (service delivery) functions. Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) expressed an interest in acquiring a number of the services provided by NPS.

NHFT then undertook a rigorous investigative process to ensure that the transfer could be undertaken safely, securely and without detrimental affect to the standards of care being provided. Extensive staff and stakeholder engagement was also undertaken before a final business case was formulated. This business case was reviewed and approved by the NHFT board in March 2011 and subsequently by Monitor, the independednt regulator of Foundation Trusts.

This process is called ‘Transforming Community Services’ because the separation away from commissioning bodies will provide the opportunity to improve the quality and efficiency of these services, as well as place them in a more accountable environment. NHFT sees this as an opportunity to integrate community physical and mental health services, improve and enhance access to these services and address health and wellbeing in a more holistic way.

Service Development

Having taken responsibility for the delivery of this range of services, NHFT is working on a programme of service transformation in order to align their delivery efficiently within the organisation's overall portfolio. By March 2012 this process will have been completed.

As and when any significant changes are considered, NHFT will use its well established consultation processes to ensure that the views of service users, their carer's, our members, our Governors, representative public interest groups, relevent thrird sector organsiations and other stakeholder groups are taken into consideration.

The service descriptions listed here will be subject to changes and revisions to ensure they are kept as up-to-date as possible.

Last updated: 23 August 2012