Trust strategy 2024- 2029
Our future direction and ambitions
Foreword from the Chair and Chief Executive
We are an NHS foundation trust with specialist expertise in mental health, dementia, learning disabilities and autism, providing a wide range of health and care services across the county of Lincolnshire.
We recognise that we have a key role to play in our communities in sharing our knowledge and experience with others, so everyone can play a part in supporting their own and other’s wellbeing.
It has been five years since our last strategy was developed, and our lives and communities have changed significantly since the pandemic. However, what we have held true to throughout has been our underlying vision to:
Support people to live well in their communities
We have much to be proud of:
- More people are accessing support in their homes and communities rather than in hospital.
- There are more options for people to access support in a crisis, whether on the telephone through a 24/7 helpline, local community Night Light Cafes, or the specialist mental health urgent assessment centre.
- We have worked with partners and people with lived experience to co-produce what we offer and invested in local community groups and organisations that can also help support people’s wellbeing, prevent them getting to a point of crisis, or access help earlier.
- We have expanded the size and range of our children and young people’s services through increased investment into our children and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS), as well as mental health support teams in schools and education settings.
- We have also secured over £60m of investment for our ward-based services, to ensure we can provide the kind of therapeutic environment our service users and staff deserve.
There will always be much more we can do and what the pandemic and recent economic challenges have shown us is just how important getting the right mental health and wellbeing support is for all parts of our community.
The right support for everyone
Some people and communities have struggled to live well more than others over the last few years.
Demand for support continues to grow and although we continue to work hard to recruit, develop and retain staff, the pressures remain significant.
Lincolnshire, like anywhere, has its own unique challenges and opportunities and we must remember these and strive to always improve the support available for people.
- Lincolnshire is a large county with a wide mix of urban, rural and coastal communities.
- We have a population that is older than the national average.
- People with a serious mental illness, learning disabilities, or someone who is autistic can have a significantly lower healthy life expectancy than the general population. Much of their ill health and around half of early deaths are deemed preventable.
- There are inequalities in how some parts of our community access and benefit from support, or have access to education, housing, and employment - all can affect people’s mental health and wellbeing.
- Nationally there is a drive for parity in funding between mental health and physical health support.
We, therefore need to work together across all sectors to increase the focus on protecting and promoting mental wellbeing throughout every stage of life and make sure that people are properly supported to have fulfilling and independent lives.
Building on strong foundations
We are really proud of what we do, however, we acknowledge we still have gaps in service provision, and that sometimes the support available can vary depending on age or where people live. We have a real opportunity working with our partners to make significant improvements to the support we offer.
Doing nothing is not an option
We are already building on our knowledge and data about local populations, so that we can shape support for the future, that meets the differing needs of our diverse community.
We are working closer than ever with our statutory and voluntary partners to make the best use of our collective passion and resources to improve health outcomes for people.
Our ambition is not just to provide specialist secondary services in the county, but to act as a champion for improving the mental wellbeing of the communities we serve.
There is a growing understanding that if we take a longer-term view, see a whole person rather than a condition or illness, and use strengths-based, trauma-informed, personalised care, then we can support people to make lasting changes to their lives.
We are part of a wider health and care system
Just as the Trust does not operate in a silo, this strategy has not been written in isolation.
The Health and Care Act 2022 created the conditions for an integrated vision for better population health across Lincolnshire, and our strategic priorities align with other key strategies in the health and care system.
We will use our expertise and influence to drive and lead improvements around mental health, dementia, learning disabilities and autism, whether that is providing services ourselves or working with the most appropriate organisation to meet people’s needs.
We also embrace our role as a large organisation in our county, working with our partners to promote economic development, in a way that promotes health and protects our environment.
As an organisation we are passionate about driving this agenda forward and leading this on behalf of the communities we support. Working together we will deliver this ambition over the next five years.
Strategic objectives
Our objectives fall under four key headings:
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A healthy population
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Outstanding quality
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Outstanding people
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Best use of resources
Over the next few pages, you will see how we expect to deliver these and what it will feel like if we get it right.
This strategy will be robustly supported by delivery plans and performance metrics for us to know we have achieved what we set out to do.
This will be regularly monitored to ensure we remain focused on access, experience, and outcomes.
How it will feel
To know if we've been successful in delivering our strategy we've described below what it will feel like for service users, carers and their families, as well as our staff and volunteers.
For our service users, carers, and their families
- I understand my needs, and what support is available and feel in control of my own care.
- There are more choices and options for support in my local community and I can access help easily when I need it.
- I’m confident that I will have a positive experience and be treated with respect.
- My family and I feel heard and valued, and able to influence the care I receive.
- My family and I know what is happening and are regularly communicated with in a way that makes sense to us.
- Services make adjustments to meet my needs, or help me find the right services, rather than telling me I don’t meet criteria or my referral has simply been rejected.
- My care feels co-ordinated, and I don’t have to repeat my story.
- I feel empowered to raise concerns and provide feedback, and I know that my feedback will be taken seriously, responded to quickly and improvements made where necessary.
- I have opportunities to be involved in improving, changing, and designing new services.
- I know my care may be delivered by different services and professionals in the community, but I feel confident and comfortable with the support I’m receiving.
- I feel safe and hopeful for my future.
- I don’t feel stigmatised or judged for needing help.
- I know how I can help myself and maintain my wellbeing.
- I receive the best quality care, that is respectful of my differences and appropriate for my needs.
For our staff and volunteers
- I feel safe, valued, and able to bring my whole self to work.
- I have the right skills, tools, and confidence to deliver my role and support service users in a personalised, holistic way.
- I have career and development opportunities to reach my full potential.
- I feel able to make improvements in my area and empowered to take responsibility for the work I do.
- I feel I can suggest changes and improvements in other services or the wider community.
- I feel the organisation cares about my health and wellbeing, and I have access to a range of support when I need it.
- There are enough staff, with the right skills, knowledge, and experience to deliver our service.
- I feel I have a good work-life balance.
- I feel able to share what I think, good or bad, and know it will be listened to and acted upon.
- Everyone in our organisation takes delivering safe, high quality, compassionate care seriously at every level.
- I understand how the Trust fits in the wider health and care system and what help and support is available across LPFT services and in our wider community.
- I don’t feel blamed when things go wrong and can help myself and others learn from experiences.
- I feel supported to do what is right for our service users and my colleagues.
- I feel proud to work for LPFT.
How our strategy fits in the wider system
Whilst this strategy lays out what we will be focusing on in LPFT specifically over the next five years, as we have said, we are part of a much wider health and care system and have an integral part to play in this and the development of wider health and wellbeing strategies across the county.
Some of the strategies our work links with include:
- Integrated Care Partnership Strategy
- NHS Lincolnshire Joint Forward Plan
- Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy
Our strategy does not deviate from these system plans, and instead builds on how LPFT contributes to these wider ambitions and objectives.
As a Trust we also work as part of the system mental health, dementia and learning disabilities and autism alliance, which is chaired by the Trust’s chief executive and brings together interested agencies from health, care, police and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector (VCFSE).
The purpose and vision for this alliance is:
“Together we will value people of all ages with mental ill health, dementia, a learning disability and/or autistic people, enabling them to live independent, safe, well and fulfilled lives in their local communities.”
The alliance also has its own set of strategic objectives that the Trust, alongside our partners, will all help deliver and these are reflected within our own local LPFT objectives.
As part of bringing the different agencies together under the alliance they have also developed some We statements, that have been co-produced with experts by experience on what it will feel like if the alliance meets their objectives. These statements equally apply to how we deliver our own services in LPFT.
Together we will value each other as the experts of our own experiences...
Choice
Together we will recognise the importance of active listening and having time to make choices
Cultural consideration
Together we will embrace and value differences and implement this in a person-centred way
Trustworthiness
Together we will do what we say we will do, in an environment of openness and honesty
Empowerment
Together we will make no decision about you without you
Safety
Together we will offer a safe non-judgemental environment for you to be open, honest and be yourself
Collaboration
Together we will walk alongside you, instead of leading you, by asking the service users, carers and all invoved with your care, what your goals are and how we will achieve them together
To download a printable version of our Trust Strategy please use this link.
Contact us
Trust Headquarters
St George's
Long Leys Road
Lincoln
LN1 1FS
Call: 01522 309200
Email: lpft.communications@lpft.nhs
