Today (24 July) the Boards of Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) and Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS) met jointly to confirm their plans to come together as an NHS Trust Group, heralding it as an exciting opportunity to make local community services stronger and more resilient.

The Group will see the coming together of two specialist community health and care providers that work across the East of England for the benefit of patients, communities, staff and partners. Under the Group model, NCH&C and CCS will remain independent organisations and have a single Board and executives who will lead the organisations into alignment from  April 2025 onwards.

Matthew Winn, joint Chief Executive Officer for CCS and NCH&C said: “ This is an exciting opportunity to make things better for our patients and our staff, whilst also making our services stronger and more resilient.

“We already have so much in common including our values and services that provide great care and support to people so they can lead their best and healthiest lives. But we can do even more together.

“Our Boards recognise the huge financial and demographic challenges on the horizon for smaller NHS Trusts. Demand and complexity of patient needs continue to increase, so having resilient specialist community health and care providers is essential. By operating together, we will benefit from the combined skills, talents, and infrastructure of both organisations. We will be able to deliver the radical approach required to improve health outcomes for local people.”

Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, Chair of NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB, said: “Bringing these two excellent organisations together to share expertise and resources will make services better for local residents. It will mean that we can maximise the funding available to provide frontline care and ensure that we are getting the best value for the public money we spend. We want to provide more care in the community and in people’s homes, and this change will help to ensure that both organisations are well-placed to enable us to do this in the years ahead.”

Find out more about NCH&C and CCS plans to create a group here www.nhsbuildingtrust.info