RECRUITMENT TO HOSTED NETWORKS GETS UNDERWAY

Recruitment is now underway to the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Hosted Network teams.

Following publication of the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Hospital Services Review in May 2018, in February 2019 each of the Acute Trusts in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw agreed to be the ‘host’ to lead a network for one of the five services covered in the Hospital Services Review (HSR).

 

The Review confirmed that a number of services are facing challenges particularly in terms of rising demand, national shortages of certain professional roles and changing ways healthcare is delivered. To address these challenges, the report highlighted the importance of the Trusts working even more closely together, in a variety of different ways. This includes the development of “hosted networks”.

The networks and their hosts are:

·         Gastroenterology – Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

·         Maternity – The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

·         Paediatrics – Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

·         Stroke – Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

·         Urgent and Emergency Care – Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

 

The role of the host is to coordinate the running of the network. It is a supportive role. The host isn’t involved in directly providing services at other Trusts, nor taking on any clinical or financial accountability for other Trusts’ services. The host provides leadership through convening and facilitating shared working between the Trusts. The emphasis is on collaboration between organisations which matches the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The focus of each network is on how Trusts can work together to:

·         Ensure equality of access and quality in the approaches that we take to patient care and pathways where appropriate;

·         Ensure our workforce in the short, medium and longer term have the skills and experience to meets the needs of patients;

·         Look at how we can reduce, or remove the barriers that prevent us from working together more easily as organisations.

 

Each network will have a clinical lead. We are looking to recruit a range of clinical leaders - nurses, Allied Health Professionals, midwives or consultants, from any of the SY&B Trusts or Chesterfield. At this point we are recruiting to maternity, gastroenterology and endoscopy, UEC and stroke.

The hosted networks are part of the overall work of the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System.

The posts will be significant leadership roles, bringing staff together across the system to forge new ways of working and improve care for patients.  The posts will be part time, for two years, on secondment from within South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw or Chesterfield.

The clinical leaders will each Chair a clinical group which includes staff from across all of the Trusts. The group will shape the strategic direction and will lead change within their own organisations. Details of the membership of each of these clinical groups will be available over the coming weeks.

Alongside the clinical posts, we are recruiting a senior team of 8c network managers who will work with the clinical leads to shape, support and develop the networks. They will be supported by a small team of analysts who will help to develop workforce planning and support the clinical groups, and a small team of administrative support. All of these posts will be full time, fixed term (2 year) roles, and some will work across two or more networks.

The post holders could come from any organisation, but roles will sit within the ‘host’ Trusts:

 

FAQs

Are Chesterfield involved or not?

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust took part in the HSR but aren’t hosting one of the five networks as they also share services with NHS organisations outside of South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw. We continue to work closely with Chesterfield and staff from Chesterfield are welcome to apply for posts.

Does being a host Trust have any advantages?

Being the host for a service does not provide a Trust with an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to investment or resource allocation, beyond support for running the network itself. All services remain equally important and there is an emphasis on ensuring that all organisations are offering high quality care, and all staff have equal access to career development opportunities.

What about where networks already exist?

The new hosted networks will work in close collaboration with any existing networks (such as the children’s Managed Clinical Networks and our Local Maternity System).

Are commissioners involved in hosted networks?

Hosted networks will include involvement from our commissioning organisations (Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), to ensure a shared approach right across our system.

If you have any further questions that you would like adding to the FAQ please email helloworkingtogether@nhs.net