Local plans to ‘transform care for people with a learning disability and/or autism’ have been published by NHS England, ‘backed by millions of pounds of dedicated funding’.
NHS England said the announcement marked ‘a major stage in delivering the reforms set out in Building the right support: A national implementation plan to develop community services and close inpatient facilities, published in October 2015 by NHS England, the Local Government Association, and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services’. NHS England said: “Building the right support set an ambition of empowering individuals and their families to have more say in their care by developing and strengthening good quality support options in their communities, and thus reducing the number of people with a learning disability and/or autism in England who are in hospitals by up to half over three years.”
Forty-eight local Transforming Care Partnerships (TCPs) – comprising serviceusers, their families, service-providers, Clinical Commissioning Groups, local authorities, and NHS England specialised commissioning hubs – are tasked with ‘taking forward these intentions’. The first awards from a £30 million, three-year NHS England revenue fund to help TCPs speed up the delivery of new services – announced at the same time as Building the right support – have now been finalised.
Funding of almost £6.5 m has been designated to 23 TCPs on a match-funding basis to help get new services up and running.
Examples of new services backed by this funding include:
- In North Central London, funding will help develop support for people to stay well in their own homes, with a Community Crisis Intervention Team offering personalised home treatment support, and a ‘crash pad’ pilot scheme providing a temporary ‘recovery house’ model as an alternative to hospital.
- In many areas, existing outreach teams are being enhanced, to offer support seven days a week, or greater therapeutic input.
- In Kent and Medway, a new community service to support people whose behaviour leads to contact with the police or criminal justice system is being established.
- In Devon, a new service to support people with autism is being set up.
- TCPs across the South have been assigned
over £500,000 to support joint work focussing on bringing patients placed in inpatient care outside the region back to their own communities.