The NHS
Introduction
Rockinghorse children’s charity works with the NHS to ensure children get the best possible care when they are unwell. All our projects, programmes and services come from the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals working directly with children and young people. Our projects and services address the issues faced by children and their families in Sussex.
We also work with the University Hospitals Sussex (UHSx) NHS Trust and under NHS England – to focus on the health problems faced by children and young people more widely.
Sussex Health and Integrated Care Services (ICS)
The Sussex Health and Care Integrated Care Service (ICS) is made up of health and care organisations across Sussex.
Their aim is to make sure every person living in Sussex has access to the best health and care from the moment they are born and throughout their lives.
They partner with statutory and NHS provider partners across the county including local councils, NHS Trusts, GP practices and pharmacies.
They want:
- People to live for longer in good health.
- To reduce the gap in healthy life expectancy between people living in the most and least disadvantaged communities.
- People’s experience of using services to be better.
- Staff to feel supported and work in a way that makes the most of their dedication, skills and professionalism.
- The cost of care to be affordable and sustainable in the long term.
They have published their Sussex Integrated Care Strategy, called ‘Improving Lives Together’ which sets out their ambition for a healthier future in Sussex over the next five years.
They also have set out their key strategic priorities for children and young people who make up 21% of the population of Sussex.
You can read more about this on their dedicated Children and Young People page here.
They also have two strategies that cover their work with this group:
Sussex Children and Young Peoples’ Physical Health Services Strategy
University Hospitals Sussex (UHSx) NHS Trust
The University Hospitals Sussex (UHSx) NHS Trust provide hospital services for people in Brighton, Hove and parts of East and West Sussex.
It’s one of the largest NHS hospital trusts in the south of England and runs seven hospitals within the area:
- Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital
- Royal Sussex County Hospital
- Worthing Hospital
- St. Richard’s Hospital in Chichester
- Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath
- Sussex Eye Hospital
- Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea
They have set out their priorities for their approach to transforming hospital services for the better, called Patient First.
Patient First is a process of continuous improvement that starts by the Trust asking their frontline staff to identify opportunities for positive, sustainable change. It then gives them the skills and support to be able to make this change happen.
You can read a summary of their Patient First approach here.
They also have priorities for working with children and young people, which we work with them on. You can read more about this in their Clinical Strategy Summary here.
NHS England: Core20PLUS5
Core20PLUS5 is a national NHS England approach to reducing health inequalities for children and young people
The approach defines a particular group of the population and identifies 5 clinical areas they want to focus on that they aim to improve.
These areas and aims for each are:
1. Asthma
- Address the over reliance on reliever medications; and
- Decrease the number of asthma attacks.
2. Diabetes
- Increase access to real-time continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps across the most deprived quintiles and from ethnic minority backgrounds; and
- Increase proportion of those with Type 2 diabetes receiving recommended NICE care processes.
3. Epilepsy
- Increase access to epilepsy specialist nurses and ensure access in the first year of care for those with a learning disability or autism.
4. Oral health
- Tooth extractions due to decay for children admitted as inpatients in hospital, aged 10 years and under.
5. Mental health
- Improve access rates to children and young people’s mental health services for 0–17-year-olds, for certain ethnic groups, age, gender and deprivation.
To find out more about Core20PLUS5, take a look at their website here.
We have a range of projects that are related to some of these aims, including our Precision Medicine project for children with asthma, diabetes support for children managing their condition, and our youth worker service supporting young people with their mental health.
