Deciding on the options

This section of the document looks at the steps taken to decide on the options for how we might create specialist older people’s mental health inpatient wards.

What we did

Looked at good practice:

• talked to people who use our services, and carers, to find out what is important to them,
• looked at guidance and best practice in clinical care for older people’s mental health,
• learnt from other NHS Trusts who are examples of good practice, and,
• talked to our staff about their experiences.

Explored and listened to our communities:

• we listened to experiences of care on our wards,
• used what people had already told us from past engagement,
• had conversations with other health, social care, and voluntary and community sector organisations, and,
• looked at equality impact.

Developed and tested the options:

• used all the information we received to inform our options, including feedback from our engagement and equality impact assessment,
• tested these options against a list of criteria including what people had told us, and,
• worked together with our health and care partners, and clinical experts to test and assess every option.

The criteria we used

We scored every potential option for how services could change against a set of evaluation criteria.

Our evaluation criteria looked at whether the option would:

• improve clinical quality and safety,
• give better access to care,
• be deliverable and sustainable,
• work with local plans and strategies,
• be value for money.

Each of these criteria is described in more detail below.

Improve clinical quality and safety. This looked at if the option would:

• Achieve best practice standards.
• Give better quality assessment, care and support.
• Give the specialist care to meet the needs of both groups of patients.
• Develop staff skills and improve recruitment.
• Create gender specific wards.
• Be informed by feedback from service users, families and carers, and our equality impact assessment.

Give better access to care. This looked at if the option would:

• Give patients continuity of care.
• Be easier to access for our staff and partners.
• Help attract the right people to work in our services.
• Have an impact on travel, transport and parking.
• Be able to meet future demand for care.
• Help to reduce the amount of time people need to stay on an inpatient ward.

Be deliverable and sustainable. This looked at if the option would:

• Be a robust way to deliver care over five to ten years.
• Be delivered in a short amount of time.
• Be cost effective.
• Have the potential to be a medium-term plan, which could be part of a long-term vision for excellence.

Would work with local plans and strategies. This looked at if the option would:

• Align with national, regional and local plans and strategies.
• Be value for money
• Be affordable.
• Make the best use of the resources that we already have.
• Create economies of scale (the cost benefits of having a more efficient way of delivering care).

In the next section, you can read more about the options which have been put forward in this consultation.