What is Fit for my Future?
It’s the strategy for how we will support the health and wellbeing of all the people of Somerset by changing the way we commission and deliver health and care services. It is being delivered through a partnership between Somerset County Council and Somerset CCG, supported by our major NHS providers, including Yeovil Hospital.
We all need to do more to stop getting ill in the first place. But when people do become ill we want to make sure they can get access to joined-up health and care support in the community to help them live independently for as long as they can.
Our full case for change can be found here
We want to work closely with local people on the development of all of these proposals.
Why do we need to change?
The health and care system faces major challenges. Services are increasingly stretched, with demand outstripping capacity in many areas. We have a growing and increasingly elderly population, which will have a rising requirement for care.
Some of our services will not be viable in the future unless something changes, as we cannot recruit the expert staff we need to support them. There are significant gaps in our services, for example in health and wellbeing, and in mental health.
Pressure on services and funding cuts mean a funding gap of £146million in our health budget by 2022/23 if the CCG, NHS Hospital Trusts and Somerset Partnership continue as they are.
What have we done so far?
Engagement autumn 2018
From early October, when we launched the case for change and emerging ideas, through to Christmas we travelled across the county, talking with hundreds of public, staff and stakeholders to listen to their views.
315 people attended 18 drop-in sessions county-wide held at various times of the day, staffed by doctors and other medical experts who answered specific questions about the services under review. Two evening sessions were added to the original number in response to public demand for a later time for those at work during the day.
Clinicians and Fit for my Future leads attended over 150 separate events for MPs and councillors; Carers; PPG members; Somerset Engagement Advisory Group; Mental Health Stakeholder Forum; Spark Voluntary Forum; Somerset Sight; Sedgemoor Compass Disability Forum; Memory Cafés and Community Connect (village agents).
We sought the views of 725 stakeholder organisations; charities; community groups; patient groups; plus GP practice managers; PPG Chairs; and parish, district and county councillors. We sent tailored emails to all of these and to key ‘harder to reach’ groups. We received over 50 responses and feedback, including The Samaritans and several Parish Councils.
The full report can be downloaded here
Engagement February 2019
We looked at the criteria that should be used to reduce the long list of possible options down to a short list of proposals.
Led by Evolving Communities, who run Somerset Healthwatch, there have been some initial public and staff views shared through a series of focus groups. We are carrying out a short public engagement to find out how they would like us to assess potential options for the future.
What happens next?
Some of the proposals emerging from the case for change we can start more quickly.
Other service transformations are more complex and will need to follow a more detailed process:
- Appraisal of the options emerging from the case for change to arrive at a shortlist for later public consultation
- Co-production of a consultation strategy for each individual service transformation
- Subject to agreement by NHS England of the business case, formal public consultation
Service users, lay representatives, stakeholders, staff and members of the public will be involved at each stage.
Full details of the Fit for my Future programme can be found on the website: www.fitformyfuture.org.uk/
You may also want to watch our short film here
