An Introduction to NHS Community Fit

The aim of NHS Community Fit is to deliver a sustainable, community based, health and social care system focussed on prevention and continuity of care, delivered by integrated teams of professionals and volunteers from the health, social care and local communities. Services will draw on local skills and connections to create individual local solutions. NHS Community Fit was borne out of the need to describe in detail how the NHS Future Fit model (reconfiguration of acute and community bed-based services) would function specifically in relation to the intended transfer of inpatient activity out into the community.

Phase One of the project is underway and aims to produce a view of the activity that is currently being provided by linking health and social care data sets. Using the data from Future Fit modelling, overlaid on the Community Fit data, the programme, which is running in parallel to Future Fit, will attempt to predict the future level of community activity necessary to support Future Fit. This work will be overseen by representatives from across health and social care involving a combination of local clinicians, patient representatives, Healthwatchs and members from the sponsoring organisations.

On 1 October 2015, the NHS Future Fit Board received a report that the first phase of this project, involving the innovative combination of service data from across health and social care providers, is making very good progress and is on schedule to report in March 2016.

This work is outside the scope of the NHS Future Fit programme and formally reports directly to the boards of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin CCGs. Because of the interdependency of the two programmes, both will provide update reports for each other. The terms of reference will be approved at the next meeting of the CCGs due to take place in November.