Southern Health put forward a particularly strong business, benefits and integration plan which the Boards of the SHA and OLDT felt was best suited to secure a strong and sustainable future for the Trust’s services.
Southern Health was one of three trusts shortlisted for the opportunity, and over the coming months will work with Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust (OLDT) to bring the two organisations together.
Andrew Hall, Chief Executive of OLDT said: “We are looking forward to working with Southern Health to move to the next phase of integrating our services. It is an exciting time for both Trusts to come together and really push the boundaries of person centred services that are high quality and cost effective for people with learning disabilities.
I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment and enthusiasm in the process so far, including the people who use our services, their families and carers, our staff, commissioners and our partner organisations.”
Katrina Percy is Chief Executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust: “I am delighted that we have been chosen as the preferred bidder for the OLDT/Ridgeway services. Over the past six months, we have met with service users, staff, carers and learning disability support organisations, and we have been so impressed with OLDT’s commitment and energy in developing services which are truly focused on people with learning disabilities to support their health and social care needs. This is precisely what Southern Health believes in and stands for – my Board and senior teams cannot wait to start work on bringing these important learning disability and social care services together for the benefits of service users.”
The announcement means that from now on the two NHS Trusts can work more closely together to create combined learning disability and social care services by autumn 2012.
Southern Health employs around 8,000 staff and the Ridgeway Partnership (Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust) around 1,200 staff.
2 March 2012
