Long term planning for North Kensington health services
Working with survivors and bereaved and the North Kensington community to decide the long-term health and wellbeing support needed moving forward, with the aim of supporting a community-led recovery.
NHS England identified additional funding for a five-year period starting in 2019 and together with NHS North West London has recently confirmed its ongoing commitment to supporting the survivors, bereaved and the wider Grenfell impacted community now and into the future.
We now need to look afresh to plan and decide what additional health and wellbeing needs related to the Grenfell Tower Fire will look like beyond 1 April 2024 and how we can aid a community-led recovery. We want to make sure:
- All services are meeting health and wellbeing needs of the survivors and bereaved and Grenfell impacted community
- Future services are community-led with community resilience and recovery at their core
- Cultural competency is placed at the heart of service planning and delivery.
In order to do this the NHS is engaging with and listening to survivors, bereaved and the wider to identify what may be required to support the community from 2024.
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Future health service provision will also be informed by a wider piece of work jointly being carried out with the Kensington and Chelsea Council to assess the wider issues that impact on residents’ health within North Kensington. For example, housing and employment. This is known as a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
We will also be seeking independent external advice on what best practice looks like and assessing existing provision to see if it providing the care and support that is needed or if changes are required.
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The original Health & Wellbeing Strategy (September 2020) was produced following a period of extensive engagement with 1,300 members of the community. The community requested that the NHS provide high quality and appropriate health and wellbeing services, that met the needs of the residents of North Kensington as well as survivors and bereaved, and contributes to building resilience. The strong view was that: "recovery should not be about taking us back to 2017 prior to the fire, but to a better place." This vision remains
relevant today.
As a result, the NHS set up and delivered a range of services to help support the community’s health and wellbeing. Cultural Competency is one area where the community’s valuable insight has resulted in some truly ground-breaking work.
Although the pandemic delayed our plans to conduct another review, this has now been completed and details on our Health & Wellbeing Strategy review can be found here. We have listened to people’s concerns and the points made. We would like to thank the community as well as our Health Partners for their valuable insight.
The Health and Wellbeing Stategy review describes what we heard during our engagement and what we are doing as a result, including:
- Providing additional primary care services to support the Grenfell-affected community, including Enhanced Health Checks & Grenfell related appointments.
- Consulting with children and young people directly with regard to their health and wellbeing. This will help us gain additional valuable insight into their health needs and how they can be addressed. A peer-to-peer support group is in the process of being set up.
- Providing more funding for Healthier Futures' ‘Self-care’ services. These will support individuals and families and are regularly reviewed to make sure they are sustainable and meet the health and wellbeing needs of the community.
In the coming weeks and months, we will work with our partners in the NHS and in the voluntary and community sector to gather evidence, assess options and develop a robust business case that sets out the future health and wellbeing services we need and the funding requirements to deliver it. Our ambition is to continue to deliver our vision that “recovery should not be about taking us back to 2017... but to a better place."
If you want to find out more, or to register your interest in getting involved, please email: nhsnwl.nkrt@nhs.net
