OUR focus is to care for and treat more people in or as close to home as possible.This means some of our services will be transformed to continue to meet the needs and expectations of the communities we serve.

The details are still being worked through with commissioners, but they are aligned to all of our clinical strategy outcomes and principally are about providing safe, high-quality care closer to, or at, home and supporting people to live well, be independent and recover quickly.

For example, the trust is developing its community-based services to support more people in their own homes, and proposing to develop the range of treatments and services available from community hospitals so they deliver a wider range of services which are less bed-based and offer more community support options, including more variety around treatment and day case activity. This will in turn help relieve some of the pressure on acute hospitals.

Earlier this year we closed the Berkeley Ward at Newtown Hospital in Worcester, which traditionally cared for people with dementia. This was as part of the approach to supporting more people at home.

The need for beds reduced because of the increase in community-based services for patients and carers to support them to live well in their own homes, despite their illness.

There is a significant financial challenge facing the NHS over the next few years, but the main motivation for change for the trust is finding new and innovative ways of caring and treating people in or as close to home as possible. This is what people tell us they want – whether they are a young person with a mental illness, or frail and elderly who can no longer care for themselves without our help.

Last week, the results of the national NHS staff survey were released and they showed that our staff were among the most motivated in the country. We were also in the top 20 per cent for the numbers of staff who said they would be happy to recommend their services to family and friends.

Inaddition, the services we already providehave been assessed by anumber of external regulators ashighquality and safe whichsupports our ownviews, and we think the proposals we’ve outlined willfurther improve the outcomes and experiences for people whouse our services.