This report is from the third workshop on the consultation options, which was held on 18 May 2023.
Following temporary closure of mental health wards in the Gordon Hospital in 2020, plans for consultation on the future of acute mental health care for residents of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Brent have been considered by the North West London Integrated Care Board (NWL ICB), which is the consulting body.
In developing plans, NHS commissioners are required to consider a full range of service change options that can improve outcomes and identify those which are viable and sustainable. These will be developed into options for formal consultation, which is expected to happen later this summer. The list of options must always include a “no change” configuration, so that it can be compared properly with whatever changes are proposed.
The development of these options is informed by detailed analysis which incorporates clinical evidence, views of service users and staff gathered during pre-consultation engagement, insights from other stakeholders, patients flow, financial and workforce considerations. The options will all be set out in a comprehensive Pre-Consultation Business Case (PCBC) document, with detailed assessment of each against the agreed criteria and objectives which will be agreed in advance of the appraisal, taking account of input from stakeholders.
Following agreement by the Board, the NWL ICB would submit the PCBC to NHS England, which is the body responsible for authorising public consultations to proceed.
Appraisal is a structured process through which all a full range of possible service solutions are considered and evaluated - and a range of options put forward for public consultation, all of which must be realistic and viable. It is important that we do not offer for public consultation any options which we know to be undeliverable or unaffordable.
The appraisal process that we are using is summarised in the flow diagram above.
It is based on three workshops to which stakeholders bringing a broad range of relevant perspectives were invited (service users, clinicians, service managers, commissioners, statutory partners). Individuals worked together to discuss “what good looks like” and review realistic scenarios and criteria which are important when considering options to inform the process; from these discussions a final list of possible options was determined and presented in workshop 3.
It is important to emphasise that these workshops are not the only way – or the only opportunity – for services users and other stakeholders to give their views.
Two workshops (consistent in content) were held with stakeholders on 27/03/23 and 18/04/23 to identify what good looks like in the provision of acute mental health services. A report of the workshops can be found here. The outputs of those workshops supported the development of a set of scenarios for discussion in workshop 2, which was held on 25/04/23.
Workshop 3 was held on 18 May 2023 from 10am to 1pm at 110 Rochester Row, London SW1 1JL. Thirty three stakeholders participated in the workshop.
The aim of workshop 3 was to consider which options perform best and why. The two key tasks for this workshop were:
- To review data
- To identify the strengths and weaknesses of options
The workshop comprised three sessions:
- Plenary 1 was a presentation of data, including for gaps identified in previous workshops, followed by a question and answer session
- Plenary 2 was a presentation of viable options, including a new model developed after input from the previous workshops, followed by a question and answer session
- Breakout discussions considering the strengths and weaknesses of each option
Click here to read the full summary report from the third workshop.