Change of NHS provider for community services in Brent and Harrow

From 1 August 2021, community services in Brent and Harrow provided by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (LNWH) will move to Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH) and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL), as part of an agreed transfer between North West London Integrated Care System partners. 

The integration of services is part of the strategic direction for North West London, and is in line with changes taking place across the wider NHS landscape. To support these changes, the CCG in collaboration with stakeholders including Harrow and Brent Local Authorities, has selected new NHS providers for community healthcare services that specialise in delivery of these services in several other boroughs in North West London.

CLCH is a dedicated community health services provider delivering services across 11 London boroughs and Hertfordshire. The Trust already provides falls prevention, health visiting and school nursing services in Brent and the majority of adult community healthcare services in Harrow. From 1 August, they will provide all adult and children’s community healthcare services in Brent and all adult community healthcare services in Harrow. The transfer will bring consistency to the delivery of these services and across Brent and Harrow.

CNWL is a dedicated community services provider and already provides a range of children’s community and mental health services in Harrow. From 1 August, they will provide all of Harrow’s children’s services. This change will further bring together NHS and Local Authority funded services.

Lesley Watts, Interim Chief Executive at the North West London Integrated Care System, said: “The decision to transfer these services to specialist providers supports delivery of high quality community services in Brent and Harrow, which will be achieved through standardisation of service specification and delivery, and the ability to rapidly implement service improvements across multiple boroughs.  

“CLCH and CNWL will be expected to deliver services as currently configured from the 1 August 2021 and then enter into the transformation phase in partnership with the CCG, services users and carers, general practice, the local authority and other stakeholders. The transformation programme is intended to be a longer term initiative which will focus on reducing health inequalities and improving services and pathways.”

Andrew Ridley, Chief Executive at CLCH, said: “The integration of community healthcare services across Brent and Harrow will enable patients to receive high quality, specialist care, closer to home.

“To achieve this, we will be working closely with our Integrated Care System partners during and following the transition period to understand how we can best develop existing services.

“Our longstanding experience of delivering community healthcare services across North West London will enable us to implement improvements collaboratively and efficiently, for the benefit of local residents and communities.”

Those LNWH staff affected by the changes will transfer to the new providers on 1 August.  Our immediate priority, in the run up to August, is to ensure that everything is in place for an orderly transition, so that patients, service users and carers see no difference to the care and support they currently receive.
 

Notes to editors 

For further information, contact Andrew Pike: a.pike@nhs.net.