As we have mentioned in previous editions of Better Together, the Trust has a responsibility to use taxpayers’ money as effectively and efficiently as possible and live within the budgets it has to deliver care to the people of Lincolnshire.
Like many at home, this has been increasingly challenging over the last few years with rising inflation and costs, and this year is the first time in a long time that the Trust is predicting a potential deficit.
Earlier this year we launched our ‘Living Within Our Means’ programme to help us tackle this and do all we can to be a financially sustainable organisation in the future. This programme looks across all areas of our spend to ensure we are as productive and effective as possible.
So far, this has mainly focused on a review of our corporate support service functions, such as HR, finance, planning and communications. These are areas where we have been asked by the Government and NHS England to reduce our spend and benchmark our services consistently with other NHS organisations. This review has now concluded, we are implementing new structures and ways of working as a result. Our service users are unlikely to notice any significant changes, but where changes do occur, we will share more information.
The next stage will involve looking at our clinical services to review if they are working as effectively as possible. This will be a longer programme of work and one where we will involve and listen to our service users and those who may use our services in the future.
There will be lots of stages to this work, starting with establishing where we are now, how we are performing, what people think about our current services, and what the expectations and needs may be now and in the future. You will likely see lots of requests from us over the coming months to complete surveys, share your views or be part of groups and events to help us shape our future service offers. Of course, we have a legal duty to formally consult when there are any significant proposed changes to how we deliver care. Again, we will share more information on this if it is required.
These reviews are about ensuring we have the right models of care to meet people’s needs; that we work as collaboratively and effectively as possible across all our services and with other health and care providers for the benefit of those we serve; and that we continue to deliver nationally mandated expectations and the most up-to-date, evidence-based care.
If you would like to be involved in any of this work, please sign up to our involvement database where you will receive direct notifications of any opportunities that may interest you, more information about the groups that exist already across the Trust to represent people who use our services, and any future opportunities to have your say. To do this, send an email to lpft.involvement@nhs.net or complete the form on our website. More information will also be regularly added to our Trust website at www.lpft.nhs.uk. You can also follow us for these updates on X and Instagram with the handle @LPFTNHS and our Facebook page here.
If you would like to find out more about being involved in future service design, please contact our Involvement Team on lpft.involvement@nhs.net or call 07773 206 341 or 07596 559 645.
