As part of the

English NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the ...

programme of separating the provision of services from commissioning known as

Transforming Community Services Transforming Community Services was a programme in the English NHS which operated from 2008 at a national level and continued during the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Although the rhetoric of the programme was about impro ...

a number of community health trusts were established when these services were separated from primary care trusts. This was one of a number of options taken. In some places community services were transferred to an existing

mental health trust A mental health trust provides health and social care services for people with mental health disorders in England. There are 54 mental health trusts. They are commissioned and funded by clinical commissioning groups. Patients usually access th ...

hospital trust A hospital trust, also known as an acute trust, is an NHS trust that provides secondary health services within the English National Health Service and, until they were abolished, in NHS Wales. Hospital trusts were commissioned to provide these s ...

. In South West England there was considerable pressure for staff to establish

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

s such as

Peninsula Community Health Peninsula Community Health was a community interest company created in October 2011 as not-for-profit service provider by Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. It ran 14 community hospitals in Cornwall: Bodmin Hospital, Camborne Redr ...

to take on these services. Campaigners in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

successfully challenged the decision to establish a social enterprise to provide community health services there in 2012. Contracts to run NHS community services are subject to competitive tendering processes under the

Health and Social Care Act 2012 The Health and Social Care Act 2012c 7 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date.'' BMJ'', 2011; 342:d408Dr Lansley's M ...

, so it is not clear whether these organisations will survive. The NHS community health services sector, not including mental health services is said to be worth £9.7 billion - about 10% of the entire NHS budget. This is the sector in which competition from private providers such as

Virgin Healthcare Virgin Care was a British private provider of community health and social services, commissioned by the National Health Service and local authorities in England. From 2010 the company was known as Virgin Care and was part of Virgin Group. In Dec ...

and Serco is most intense. There is a great deal of pressure to move NHS services out of hospitals and into the community, but up to now most of these services have been funded by block contracts. There are measures of activity but no outcome measures and no NHS tariff, so there is no financial incentive for providers to ensure services are effective. It remains to be seen what impact the instigation of

Any Qualified Provider Any Qualified Provider is a contractual system within the NHS internal market of the English National Health Service. The system was introduced under the Labour administration in 2009/10 when it was called "Any Willing Provider" - The policy cont ...

contracts will have on this sector. Community services have been repeatedly reorganised since the abolition of district health authorities in 1996. Established as NHS trusts they were under the same imperative to become

NHS foundation trust A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local s ...

s as existing trusts, but it seems unlikely that many of them will be able to pass the tests in their present form. Community healthcare trusts may provide services including: *

District nursing District Nurses work manage care within the community and lead teams of community nurses and support workers. The role requires registered nurses to take a NMC approved specialist practitioner course. Duties generally include visiting house-bound ...

, including out of hours nursing * Health visiting *

School nursing School nursing, a specialized practice of public health nursing, protects and promotes student health, facilitates normal development, and advances academic success. School nurses, grounded in ethical and evidence-based practice, bridge the gap b ...

*Community physiotherapy *

Speech and language therapy Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

*Community

podiatry Podiatry () or podiatric medicine () is a branch of medicine devoted to the study, diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle, and leg. A Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM), or a podiatrist, is a healthcare ...

Free-standing community health trusts existing in 2013

* Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust *

Bridgewater Community Healthcare Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (Bridgewater) is a leading provider of community health services in the northwest of England. In 2013/14 Bridgewater was responsible for providing community and specialised health services ...

(based in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

) * Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust *

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust is a NHS trust which provides community health services to a number of London boroughs, as well as Hertfordshire. History In 2009, the community service parts of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington ...

(also provides services in Hertfordshire)
Croydon Community Health Services
* Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust *

Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust was a community health trust established in 2012 under the Transforming Community Services programme to run community services in Gloucestershire after proposals to set up a community interest company, Glouc ...

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, commonly referred to as HCT, is an NHS organisation providing adult and children's community health services, such as district nursing and health visiting, across Hertfordshire. It also provides some services in ...

Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
* Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust *

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust was established in 2011. It runs a wide range of services and around Leeds. It runs the Leeds Eating and Drinking Team which aims to tackle the growing problem of malnutrition. In April 2015 the trust was cr ...

Lincolnshire Community Health Services
*

Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust was one of the community health trusts created in 2012 under the Transforming Community Services programme. It provided controversial services for people at the end of their life, Liverpool Care Pathway later n ...

Medway Community Healthcare Medway Community Healthcare is a community interest company providing community health trust services to the people of Medway established under the Transforming Community Services initiative. It comprises the community services previously run by ...

Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust is a provider of community services to a population of about 882,000 in Norfolk. It was established under the Transforming Community Services initiative. It comprises the community services previously ...

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust provides community health services (not including adult mental health) in Shropshire (including Telford and Wrekin). It was established in July 2011 from the community health provider arms of Shropshire Coun ...

Sussex Community NHS Trust Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is a community health trust established as a result of the Transforming Community Services programme. It is the main provider of NHS community health services across West Sussex Brighton and Hove and has an an ...

* Tameside and Glossop Community Healthcare * Wirral Community NHS Trust

References

{{reflist National Health Service (England)

Free-standing community health trusts existing in 2013

See also

References