The Black Country NHS clinical commissioning groups, the organisations that plan and pay for many of our health services, in partnership with local authorities, are making improvements in care and support for adults with learning disabilities.

This work is part of a national programme called the Transforming Care Programme that is being introduced across the country. It follows an investigation into abuse at Winterbourne View in 2015 and similar hospitals and is the result of a cross-government commitment to move all people with learning disabilities, who were inappropriately placed in such institutions, into community care.

The Black Country Transforming Care Programme was established to transform care and support for this group of service users. It aims to:

·         Improve quality of care for people with learning disabilities

·         Improve quality of life for people with learning disabilities

·         Enhance community capacity and model of care, thereby reducing inappropriate hospital admissions and length of stay.

This means developing more community-based teams with specially trained social workers, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other staff working more closely together around the needs of service users, and their family and carers.

We are seeking people’s views on the community-based services that have been put in place in the Black Country and the impact on specialist inpatient assessment and treatment beds for adults with learning disabilities.

Our aim is to develop a single state of the art assessment and treatment centre that can provide the high level of care service users need with the focus on getting them back into the community, near their family and friends, as soon as possible.

We want to hear your views. Please visit our website: http://www.dudleyccg.nhs.uk/tcp-dudley/ for full details of the proposals, ways to get involved and how to give your feedback.

All feedback will be analysed and a report presented to the Black Country CCG governing bodies to inform final decisions on the proposed new community model.

If you would like to receive a paper copy, easy read or translated version in another language please contact the communications team on 0121 611 0611 or email agem.communications@nhs.net