Annual Report and Accounts for the year 2023-24

Foreword by our Chair and Chief Executive

Welcome to our 2023/24 Annual Report and Accounts. This year’s report tells the story of our continued transformation to meet the changing needs of our community and wider health and care system.

In it, you’ll read how we have continued to be focused on our vision to help people to live well in their communities, by helping people to access the right care, at the right time, delivered by the right people, in environments that meet people’s needs.

A changing profile of need

We are now four years post the start of the pandemic and it is worth reflecting on how much has changed both during our response and in our recovery. The way we deliver our services has changed, and as demand for our services has increased and changed, we continue to work with our service users, carers and staff to change and adapt our care for the future.

Demand in our children and young people services is particularly evident and a real need to focus on early intervention and prevention to stop the tide of future mental health demand. Whilst we know our waiting times in these services remains much higher than we would want, we have also made great strides in reducing this, introducing new services in schools and offering an all-access telephone helpline. Working with our partners in the wider Lincolnshire health and care system we have started a significant review of the services we provide to children and young people and their families – in order to transform our offer for the future.

Capacity is not meeting demand across all of our services, and we know our waiting times in some areas are far from where we would like them to be. We have clear recruitment and transformation plans with some further investment in the pipeline that will help improve access. In addition, more support is being put in place to support those waiting to try and prevent them hitting crisis point.

Lots to celebrate

Despite this difficult context there is much to celebrate from the last year. We have introduced some fantastic new services and support with more mental health support in schools, a new virtual autism hub, a Macmillan cancer support service for those struggling with their cancer diagnosis, new mental health roles in primary care, children and young people workers in hospitals and emergency departments and enhanced care after custody service (RECONNECT) for adults struggling to make the transition from prison back into the community.

We continue to expand our crisis offer. The successful mental health urgent assessment centre in Lincoln is moving to offer a service to all ages. This will be further bolstered by the new NHS 111 crisis line which enables callers the opportunity to speak directly with local mental health professionals for advice and support when in crisis from one easy-to-remember number.

Improving environments

Most exciting has probably been the major investment in our wards and the final opening of our brand new £25million adult acute mental health wards in Lincoln at the Peter Hodgkinson Centre. This heralds the next step in improving our environments to meet the modern standards of mental health care, with 38 ensuite bedrooms and multi-purpose community spaces and far improved access to relaxing outdoor spaces for people staying on the wards, their visiting families and their carers.

It does not stop there as we were so pleased to also receive final sign off on our Boston ward improvement scheme. More than £40million will be invested in a new purpose built adult mental health ward and associated services on the Norton Lea site in Boston. This will completely eradicate dormitory accommodation across our entire mental health ward estate.

Work has now begun on-site, and we very much look forward to seeing the new ward emerge over the next couple of years ready to open by 2026.

Listening and improving

It would be remiss of us not to mention the development of our new five-year Trust strategy that officially launched in April 2024. Much discussion has taken place throughout 2023-24 on what our future ambitions for the Trust would be and how we want to improve and go further for our service users, patients, carers,
families and our people over the next five years.

We have listened to what people have been telling us about what is important to them to develop this new strategy, which has been co-produced at every stage with colleagues, our service users, carers and partners, to hopefully deliver a meaningful document that will drive our future focus in everything we do. We very much look forward to delivering this strong ambition over the next five years.

Commitment and compassion

What we know is there is much to celebrate across the Trust and many of the performance, clinical and operational successes we have achieved this year are included later in this report. You can also read our overview of this in the following performance report.

We have no doubt that next year will present us with similar challenges as we adapt our services to constantly changing environments, while continuously improving and transforming what we do.

It remains our greatest privilege to lead this organisation and witness every day the dedication,
strength and kindness that our colleagues show in their interactions with each other and those who come into our care.

We are also immensely grateful to our local community for their continued support - it is never
taken for granted. I hope that this report provides you with insight into the work we do and the
impact we have on the lives of those we serve. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Kevin Lockyer, Chair

Sarah Connery, Chief Executive