Seasons greetings...I had intended to write this blog in advance of the festivities but like everyone else in the run up to Christmas I ran out of time and energy so here I am at "Twixmas", amongst the turkey leftovers and significant quantities of chocolate pondering what the New Year has to bring! 2007 was year of fresh challenges and new learning. The WISMS project was formally established under the banner "Our health, our care, YOUR say" and the WISMS workforce and its key stakeholders were invited to reflect on current services and shared aspirations. September's successful stakeholder event brought partners together to consider the future of the integrated substance misuse model setting this into context within the current NHS reforms, particularly those relating to the future of the provider arm of Wakefield District Primary Care Trust. Congratulations are in order to Turning Point who successfully retained the contracts for local alcohol and community drug services. We look forward to joint working and service improvement in the forthcoming years. My personal thanks to all staff members who were involved in any aspect of the recent retendering exercise it was a privilege and a huge and positive learning curve for us all. Earlier in December a contingent of commissioners and providers from Wakefield joined colleagues across Yorkshire and Humber for the official launch of the new Clinical Guidelines. The new guidelines acknowledge the significant strides that have been made in delivering effective drug treatment in this country and lays down some challenges to all of us as providers of care to take treatment "beyond methadone" and into "recovery and wellbeing". As a member of the national guidelines working party I was immensely proud to be part of such an energetic and optimistic event and can vouch for the fact that the Wakefield table was definitely the most productive! I am now looking forward to working with partners and commissioners in rising to the challenge of implementing the key messages, particularly achieving improvements in care planning, assessing and addressing chronic health problems and offering greater access to psychosocial interventions. In the New Year specific guidance on clinical governance is expected from the NTA. This will call on partnerships to declare how clinical governance is executed within the treatment system across statutory and non statutory providers. I am delighted to continue in the role as Clinical Governance Lead for the Wakefield Treatment system and expect to draw on the established mechanisms for information sharing and quality improvement through our monthly multiagency senior managers' forums. Watch this space for more news on clinical governance in the New Year. The Empowering Leadership Programme (ELP) was also launched in December bringing together 25 practitioners from all parts of the service embarking on the first stage of their leadership development pathway. The real work begins in January at a two day away day event at the far and distant venue that is the ...... Wakefield Cedar Court Hotel! Of equal importance and running alongside the ELP is the service user development programme building on the expertise and knowledge of the members of the service user forum. Both programmes will come together in April for a celebration event Good luck to all involved. It is a credit to the commitment and dedication of all the staff in WISMS wherever and whatever role they perform that we have ended the year with the highest recorded numbers in treatment and our retention figures continuing to rise steadily. So what next for WISMS? Some things will stay the same... - We will be as busy and productive as ever
- We will continue to innovate and push the boundaries of care
- We will all learn new skills and demonstrate a drive for improvement for our clients
- We will remain a strong partnership
- We will continue to endeavour to widen the outcomes we deliver
And some things may change... In the quest to develop new partnerships, achieve greater independence and widen the positive outcomes we deliver for service users and the communities we serve On behalf of the WISMS team may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year! Linda |
