Trust Strategies, Plans and Reports

Strategies and Plans

Care Without Carbon Strategy
Our Green Plan sets out how we will will deliver our ongoing Care Without Carbon programme to reduce carbon emissions from our care services, with a long-term aspiration to becoming a carbon neutral healthcare provider.

Read the full Green Plan and the Green Plan Executive Summary.

Digital Strategy
Our Digital Strategy sets out how we will improve our patients’ health and well-being and their care experience through the effective use of data, digital technology and technology-enabled care. We have identified four key outcomes which our Digital Strategy will focus on:

Patients will have more control over their interactions with our Trust, and our clinicians will be able to remotely monitor patient observations to determine when a face-to-face consultation is required
Our digital systems are not a burden on patients, they are intuitive and make tasks easier and quicker
The right information about our patients is available to staff when they need it to inform decision making, regardless of where that information was first requested by the NHS
Information about our local population (how our patients live and work), is vital for our staff to reimagine their services and change the way they work to improve overall health outcomes

This strategy pushes SCFT to build on the digital momentum achieved through the pandemic. This will involve further innovation, but also spending time shoring up what we have built so quickly.

Communications and Engagement plan
Our Communications and Engagement plan will ensure we exceed our statutory and good practice responsibilities to engage with everyone who uses our services.

Estates Strategy
Our Estates Strategy is clinically led and is focused to support and enhance our clinical activities. It sets out how we intend to deploy our estate so that we are best able to respond to changes in service delivery.

Freedom to Speak Up Strategy
Our Freedom to Speak Up strategy describes how we commit to the voice of our staff being heard and acted upon as a means to improve both the patient’s and staff experience.

Medicines Optimisation Strategy
Our Medicines Optimisation Strategy guides the development of medicines optimisation within the Trust. It is a key document that relates to how the principles of medicines optimisation are integrated into the Trust’s systems, work practices and culture at all levels.

Membership Strategy
Our Membership Strategy sets out how we will recruit, engage, support and develop our NHS foundation trust membership.

Our Life Stage Service Frameworks
Our Life Stage Service Frameworks set out how we will support patients at each stage of their lives. They have been developed by our clinical teams using patient feedback.

Patient and Carer Experience and Involvement Strategy
Our Patient and Carer Experience and Involvement Strategy sets out how we will use patient feedback to improve and develop our services and how we will listen to our patients to ensure they are involved in every aspect of their care, and are at the heart of every decision.

Research and Development Strategy
Our Research and Development Strategy sets out how the trust will deliver excellent clinical research at the heart of the community by building and sustaining a vibrant clinical research environment that is robust, cost-effective, nationally competitive, and aligned to local, regional and national priorities.

Risk Management Strategy
Our Risk Management Strategy sets out our approach to risk management; including our governance frameworks, processes, and risk appetite within which risks are managed across the whole organisation.

Safeguarding Strategy
Our Safeguarding Strategy sets out the strategic approach to strengthen our arrangements for safeguarding across the Trust over the next three years and in the future. It makes clear the roles and responsibilities of all staff to safeguard.

Security Strategy
Our Security Strategy sets out to fully comply with its statutory and regulatory obligations in regard to the management of security.

Trust-Wide Strategy
Our Strategy 2022 - 2026 describes how we will adapt our services to meet local needs and continue to work closely with partner organisations to deliver more joined up and coordinated care, whilst always placing patients, children, families and carers at the centre of everything we do.

People Strategy
Our People Strategy describes how we will create the workforce we need to deliver our vision of excellent care at the heart of the community.

Reports

Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22
You can view our full Annual Report and Accounts which provides details of the excellent care we provide to communities we serve in West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, and the High Weald, Lewes and Havens area of East Sussex.

Modern slavery - Our annual report also includes our modern slavery statement. Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in any part of our organisation, including our supply chains. The statement demonstrates how we are following best practice and taking all reasonable steps to conduct our business in an ethical way that prevents slavery and human trafficking.

Annual Report Summary 2021/22
Our Annual Report Summary highlights our successes, achievements and performance.

Details of Trade Unions can be found here.

Care Without Carbon – Annual Sustainability Report
The Annual Sustainability Report shows the progress we’ve made in each of our seven steps to sustainable healthcare since Care Without Carbon was launched.

Equality Report 2020/21
Our Annual Equality Report 2020/21 reports the progress achieved to advance workforce equality, diversity and inclusion across our Trust.

Patient Experience Annual Report 2020/21
Our Patient Experience Annual Report provides an update on progress made against objectives we have set to improve patient experience.

Quality Account 2021/22
Our latest Quality Account 2021/22 shows how we measured our progress against the quality improvement priorities we set ourselves last year, as documented in our Quality Account 2020/21. Also included, are the quality improvement priorities we have set ourselves to achieve in 2022/23.

Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Report
Read the Workforce Race Equality Standards Report. For further information about the Workforce Race Equality Standard please visit NHS England.

United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act (2015)
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is committed to taking steps to comply with the United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act (2015) to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of our supply chains or in any part of our own business.

To protect workers from modern slavery we undertake pre-employment checks for all people being recruited, including that they have the required legal documents to verify their identity and right to work in the United Kingdom. We use staff from agencies on approved frameworks, which are audited to provide assurance that pre-employment clearance has been obtained for agency staff. We also apply professional codes of conduct and practice relating to procurement and supply, including through our Procurement Team’s membership of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.

Our commitment to ensure no modern slavery or human trafficking related to our business is set out in our purchase orders. To identify and mitigate the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in NHS supply chains, the NHS Terms and Conditions of Contract requires that all suppliers comply with the provisions of the Act and the ‘Supplier Code of Conduct’ for the NHS Supply Chain or NHS Supply Chain frameworks. This includes a provision concerning forced labour. If we became aware of a supplier involved in the process of modern slavery, then we would alert the authorities in that area to express a concern to the local safeguarding teams and police.

Public Board Meeting Reports
View here

Reports in other formats
Email the Communications and Engagement team for a printed, large print or taped copy of our Annual Report and Accounts.

The Trust offers translations of all essential leaflets in all major languages, plus Braille, Easy Read, large print and audio formats. Please ask your clinical team for this material.

Governance

Constitution
Based on NHS Foundation Trust Model the SCFT Constitution was reviewed and updated in December 2018.

NHS Provider Licence
The Trust Board is required by its regulator NHS Improvement to self-certify whether or not it has complied with the General Condition 6 and Continuity of Services Condition 7, and Corporate Governance Statement and Certification of Training of Governors of the NHS provider licence. View the Conditions G6 and CoS7 and Condition FT4 self-certifications.

At the Trust Board meeting on 25 May 2023, following a review of the report submitted with evidence cited, the Board are satisfied that:

In the Financial Year most recently ended (2022-23), the Licensee took all such precautions as were necessary in order to comply with the conditions of the licence, any requirements imposed on it under the NHS Acts and have had regard to the NHS Constitution (General Condition 6).
After making enquiries the Directors of the Licensee have a reasonable expectation that the Licensee will have the Required Resources available to it after taking account distributions which might reasonably be expected to be declared or paid for the period of 12 months referred to in this certificate (Continuity of Services Condition 7).
Compliance with the Corporate Governance Statement and Certification of Training with Governors (Condition FT4).

Directors Code of Conduct
The purpose of the Directors Code of Conduct is to provide clear guidance on the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of all directors.

Register of Gifts, Hospitality and Sponsorship
The Trust publishes an annual register. View the 2022/23 Register of Gifts, Hospitality and Sponsorship.

Register of Decision Makers Interests
View the Register of Decision Makers Interests.

View the explanatory information about managing conflicts of interest in the NHS and at the Trust.

Standing Financial Instructions and and Detailed Scheme of Delegation
View the Standing Financial Instructions and and Detailed Scheme of Delegation

Standing Orders and Reservation and Delegation of Powers
View the Standing Orders and Reservation and Delegation of Powers

Financial Reports

Payments made to suppliers with a value over £25,000 by Sussex Community NHS Trust. Below are lists of reports of individual payments to suppliers with a value over £25,000 made within the month. Publication of these reports forms part of the government's commitment to greater transparency and the Trust’s commitment to be open and transparent with its stakeholders.

The attachments are all CSV files.

Financial Year 2022/2023

Financial Year 2021/2022

Financial Year 2019/2020

Financial Year 2018/2019

Looking for archived reports: Archived financial reports are available to download.

Countering Fraud

Each NHS Trust & Health body is directed by the Secretary of State to provide Counter Fraud provision, these officers are all working towards eradicating Fraud within the NHS.

If you work for our Trust and have a suspicion of a fraud occurring in your workplace, or if you are a member of the public that is concerned that a fraud might be taking place at the Trust please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact

David Kenealy
Anti-Crime Manager
Tel: 07580 164709
Email: david.kenealy1@nhs.net / david.kenealy@tiaa.co.uk

Sarah Pratley
Anti-Crime Specialist
Tel: 07769 640781
Email: spratley@nhs.net / sarah.pratley@tiaa.co.uk

Alternatively you can contact the NHS Fraud and Corruption Reporting Line 0800 028 40 60 or submit a report online at www.reportnhsfraud.nhs.uk

What does NHS fraud look like?

By health professionals: Fraud by NHS professionals includes claiming for treatment or services not provided (e.g. Medicines Use Reviews at pharmacies, dental treatment or optical services not carried out) and working elsewhere while on sick leave.

By managers and staff: Fraud by NHS managers and staff includes submitting fraudulent claims for grants and payments (e.g. false or inflated travel or subsistence claims, and fraudulent applications for funding and training).

By contractors and suppliers: Contractor and supplier fraud includes charging for items of a higher quality or greater quantity than those supplied, and using inappropriate tendering processes.

By patients: Patient fraud includes claiming for free or reduced cost treatment and services when not entitled, and using aliases to get prescription drugs.

The NHS Counter Fraud Service wants to hear from you if you have any suspicions of fraud. If in doubt – make the referral. Remember, fraud in the NHS deprives hospitals and patients of valuable equipment, staff and resources and costs you, the taxpayer, more money to fund the NHS. It’s your NHS. Don’t let them get away with it.

National Fraud Initiative (NFI) Fair Processing Notice

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises.

Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one body against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match. This is usually personal information. Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.

We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative: a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, as detailed here.

The use of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a Code of Practice.

View further information on the Cabinet Office’s legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information. For further information on data matching at this authority contact SC-TR.SussexCommunityFinance@nhs.net

Board Expenses 2021/2022

Board Expenses 2022/2023

How We Are Rated

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care services in England. They make sure that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care. They check whether services are meeting national standards by inspecting them. Results of those inspections are published on the CQC website.

Our CQC Inspection

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT) has been rated as GOOD overall and OUTSTANDING in some areas following an inspection by England’s chief inspector of hospitals.

Inspection teams led by the independent Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited services in the Autumn and noted improvement since services were last inspected in 2015.

The improved ratings reflects the hard work and dedication of SCFT teams who have a positive culture where “managers and staff embraced an improvement culture and tried hard to improve the quality and sustainability of services.”

SCFT Chief Executive Siobhan Melia said:

“This report confirms that we are continuing on our journey of continuous improvement.

“All our teams have been working really hard to make sure that we are always focussed on doing everything we can to improve what we do for the benefit of patients and the public.

“I’m delighted for everyone at SCFT that this work has been recognised. We now want to make sure we take things to the next level.”

SCFT Chair, Peter Horn said:

“We’re continuously improving. Ratings across all CQC domains are now Good and we have two areas where we are Outstanding – caring in our community inpatient services and responsive in our community end of life care.

“On behalf of the trust board I express a resounding THANK YOU to all our teams who have contributed to this achievement.”

Overall rating

The CQC inspected three out of six core services. This included community inpatient services, community dental services and sexual health services.

CQC’s overall rating of the trust has not changed. However, ratings have been upgraded in community inpatient services. Community dental services and sexual health services were rated Good overall and this was the first time these services have been inspected.

Caring services

One of the biggest areas of success noted by inspectors are seen in SCFT’s inpatient units which are now rated as Outstanding for providing ‘caring’ services.

Inspectors noted that “Staff delivered outstanding care to patients. We saw numerous examples where staff had gone the extra mile. Staff consistently demonstrated patients at the centre of everything they did.”

Well led

Inspectors highlighted that the Trust has “an open and honest culture which reflected throughout all levels of the organisation.”

They also noted that there are “Staff at all levels were clear in their roles and responsibilities in the delivery of good quality care. Leaders were dedicated, experienced and staff told us they were visible throughout the organisation.”

Patient Safety

Our overall rating of safe stayed GOOD however improvements were identified at our inpatient units. Inspectors stated, “Safety had improved overall and managers closely monitored staffing issues and addressed them as required. Medicines management and audit had improved.”

Accessible here is the April 2023 data on Safe Staffing levels and Care Hours per Patient Day for various Trust sites.

Areas for improvement

As part of the CQC’s recommendations, the inspectors advised SCFT to:

Display consistent advice on how to complain throughout all locations.
Improve referrals to mental health services and the monitoring and administration of pain relief.
Ensure consistent management and quality of medical records applies across all locations.

The trust is committed to learn and continue to improve based upon the chief inspector’s feedback.

Full CQC report

You can view the full CQC report from the CQC website.

Commissioning for Quality and Innovation

CQUIN stands for Commissioning for Quality and Innovation. This is a system introduced in 2009 to make a proportion of healthcare providers’ income conditional on demonstrating improvements in quality and innovation in specified areas of care.

This means that a proportion of our income depends on achieving quality improvement and innovation goals, agreed between the Trust and its commissioners.

The sum attached to each CQUIN changes each year and is based on a percentage of the contract value, and depends on achieving quality improvement and goals.

The last two years have been unprecedented for the NHS. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique set of challenges and required innovative new ways of working to provide an effective response.

As part of that response the NHS adopted special payment arrangements for 2020/21 and 2021/22, removed the requirement for trusts to sign formal contracts and disapplied financial sanctions for failure to achieve national standards. The commissioning for the CQUIN financial incentive scheme was also suspended for the entire period. To support the NHS to achieve its recovery priorities, CQUIN is being reintroduced from 2022/23.

CQUIN 2022/23

NHS England has identified a small number of core clinical priority areas, where improvement is expected across 2022/23. In general, these are short-term clinical improvements that have been selected due to their ongoing importance in the context of COVID-19 recovery and where there is a clear need to support reductions in clinical variation between providers.

The CQUIN design criteria have been retained ensuring a continued focus on specific evidence based improvements, rather than complicated and burdensome change. These criteria require that indicators in the scheme:

Highlight proven, standard operational delivery methods
Support implementation of relatively simple interventions
Form part of a wider national delivery goals that already exist, thereby not adding new cost pressures
Are explicitly supported by wider national implementation programmes
Command stakeholder support.

The CQUIN is earned on four out of the five indicators for community providers that have been agreed with commissioners and are worth 1.25% of the actual contract value. For 2022/23 this is approximately £2.8 million.

The following documents show the 2022/23 CQUIN for community providers:

Flu vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers

Use of anxiety disorder specific measures in IAPT

Malnutrition screening in the community

Assessment, diagnosis and treatment of lower leg wounds

Assessment and documentation of pressure ulcer risk