SLaM Members – South London and Maudsley NHS

Who we are

We are a large NHS Foundation Trust providing mental health and substance misuse services for people of all ages in South London* and specialist services to people from across the UK.

We offer the widest range of mental health services in the country and is among the largest training providers in the field. Our history dates from the founding in 1247 of Bethlem Royal Hospital, the oldest psychiatric health provider in the world.

We are a world leader in research, working in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. We host the UK’s only specialist Biomedical Research Centre for mental health. We are a member of King’s Health Partners, which promotes health in mind and body, one of only five Academic Health Sciences Centres in the country.

Our objectives are to:

Treat mental illness effectively
Work in partnership to promote mental well-being
Support others by sharing our clinical expertise and knowledge

Our core value is:

“Everything we do is to improve the experience of people using our services, and to promote mental health and well-being for all”We are a membership organisation with members who are service users, carers and members of the public. We want to have at least 12,000 members.

Local services

Local mental health and substance misuse services for people living in the London Boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham

Regional specialist services for SE London, primarily in London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich

Substance misuse, addictions, peri-natal, mother and baby inpatient services, eating disorders

What is a Foundation Trust?

Foundation Trusts have greater freedom to manage their own affairs and improve services. NHS Foundation Trusts were set up to:

Devolve more power and responsibility to the local level so that NHS health care providers are better able to respond to the needs of patients. NHS Foundation Trusts aim to bring about improved access to higher quality services for NHS patients by incentivising innovation and entrepreneurialism.
Devolve accountability to local stakeholders including NHS patients and staff. NHS Foundation Trusts operate governance arrangements that give local stakeholders and the public opportunities to influence the overall stewardship of the organisation and its strategic development.
Support patient choice by increasing the plurality and diversity of providers within the NHS.

As a Foundation Trust we can retain our surplus, are free to invest in the delivery of services and to manage our budgets to shape our healthcare services to better reflect local needs and priorities. It also means that we are more accountable to the people we provide services to.

What does membership mean?

We have a duty to enage, involve and listen to our local communities. Therefore we actively encourage individuals to become a member of our Trust so that we can do this. We strive to ensure that our membership is representative of the communties we serve.

Our membership is comprised of:

Public
Anyone living in the boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. Or anyone living in England and Wales.

Service users and carers
Anyone who has received our services in the last five years, or anyone who is caring for someone who has received our services within the last five years.

Staff
Anyone who is employed by the Trust for at least 12 months.

It is free to join – just fill out our online application form.

What is the Members’ Council and who is on it?

The role of the Members’ Council responsibilities – set out in the NHS Bill 2006 and in the Trust’s constitution – is to:

support the Board of Directors in setting the longer-term vision for the Trust, to influence proposals to make changes to services and to act in a way that is consistent with NHS principles and values and the terms of the Trust’s authorisation
engage in dialogue with and provide advice to the Board of Directors regarding the Trust’s future vision and strategy, and to act as a source of ideas about how the Trust can provide its services in ways that meet the needs of the community it serves
review annually the extent to which the Trust is meeting its objective of delivering high quality services
work with the Board of Directors on such other matters for the benefit of the Trust as may be agreed between them
exercise other functions at the request of the Board of Directors
respond as appropriate when consulted by the Board of Directors
exercise such other powers and to discharge such other duties as may be conferred on the Members’ Council under the Constitution.

The legislation relating to NHS Foundation Trusts lists a number of further responsibilities for the Members’ Council:

appointing the Chair and other Non-Executive directors of the NHS Foundation Trust at a general meeting
removing, where it is deemed necessary by three quarters of the Members’ Council, the Chair or Non-Executive Directors of the NHS Foundation Trust at a general meeting
approving, by a majority, the appointment of the Chief Executive by the Non-Executive Directors
appointing or removing the auditor at a general meeting of the Council
receiving a presentation of the annual report and accounts at a general meeting.

The Board of Directors has a duty to consult and pay due regard to the views of the Members’ Council in relation to forward planning, particularly in relation to information which is submitted to Monitor.

The Members’ Council is not responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation. Legislation provides that all the powers of the NHS Foundation Trust are to be exercised by its directors. The Members’ Council cannot therefore veto decisions made by the Board of Directors.

SLaM strategy

Who we are, why we are here and what we aim to do

Who we are

Both a local mental health trust and a teaching hospital, linked to a major international research institution
An NHS Foundation Trust serving a diverse local population of 1.1 million people with high levels of mental health need,
Provider of the most extensive portfolio of mental health and substance misuse services in the UK, offering services nationally and internationally
A world leader in research, in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
The largest mental health training institute in the country
Home to the only mental health Biomedical Research Centre in the UK
Part of an Academic Health Sciences Centre – King’s Health Partners - promoting health in mind and body by linking research, clinical services, teaching and training.
An organisation with a history that dates back to the foundation of the Bethlem Royal Hospital in 1247, the oldest psychiatric institution in the world

Why we are here

Our mission

To treat people with mental illness effectively
To work in partnership to promote mental well-being
To support others by sharing our clinical expertise and knowledge

Our core value

Everything we do is to improve the experience of people using our services, and to promote mental health and well-being for all

What we aim to do
Provide high quality clinical care and treatment, delivered sensitively, consistently and based on evidence that it works

Which means…

Delivering local services in partnership with local authority social care teams, which meet the diverse needs of our local communities
Developing better treatments through excellence and innovation, based on reliable and up to date evidence of what works best
Ensuring that our inpatient services measure up against the best that is available elsewhere
Being clear about what we offer, which includes:
- describing our clinical services in a way that can be understood by the people who use them and their carers
- defining care pathways across the whole system of care, so that commissioners and service users are clear about the stages involved in the care and treatment provided by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM)
- providing clear evidence that our services are both clinically and cost efficient, delivering effective outcomes
Systematically obtaining feedback from service users and carers about their experience of using our services – and using it to develop and improve our services
Expanding the provision of psychological therapies across all our services.

Promote recovery, social inclusion and mental well-being

Which means…

Moving beyond a service that mainly reacts and responds to illness, and contributing even more widely to helping the community stay well
Providing services which are focused on recovery – as well as containing and treating the symptoms of illness – and which offer choice and promote independence
Providing help back into education or employment for those people who want it.

Translate research into practice

Which means…

Undertaking research which is relevant to the needs of our clinical services and local populations
Making sure that research is applied - directly, speedily and consistently - to improve clinical care and treatment
Ensuring that we have a well deserved reputation for excellence in research that benefits people who use our services, and helps to transform services beyond SLaM
Ensuring that all members of the multi professional team have the opportunity to grow the research portfolio
Making the most of our strong relationship with colleagues in King’s Health Partners to maximise the global impact of our research portfolio, enabling all partners to compete with the best in the world.

Create a supportive environment which enables people to flourish and achieve excellence

Which means…

Attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining the best staff
Recognising that staff are talented and have the potential to learn and contribute more
Paying attention to high quality performance and challenging poor performance
Helping staff experience a sense of achievement and satisfaction from their work
Encouraging new ideas and new ways of working as a means of delivering better services
Being an organisation where people want to come and work
Providing opportunities for people who have used mental health services to come and work here
Striving for excellence and challenging mediocrity
Valuing creativity and innovation.

Provide leadership and management which inspires, directs and drives the organisation

Which means…

Setting a vision and providing a clear sense of direction to all parts of the organisation – clinical services, research, education and corporate infrastructure
Allowing people the freedom to act, make decisions and take risks where appropriate
Providing a safe environment that enables staff to develop ideas and new ways of working, and where errors can be used constructively to promote learning.

Develop as an organisation so that quality becomes central to everything we do

Which means…

Encouraging a ‘can do’ culture
Embracing change
Encouraging openness and learning from when things go wrong
Involving teams in the organisation’s development
Developing commercial skills so that the organisation is able to thrive in a more competitive environment.

Maintain corporate infrastructure services which provide effective, timely and customer friendly support

Which means…

Readily accepting that the way we have done things in the past may not be the best way of doing so in future
Ensuring that our infrastructure services are flexible, adaptable and decisive
Being open to new ways of working, which may mean sharing resources across King’s Health Partners.

Develop and grow as an organisation in order to respond effectively to the changing environment within which we operate

Which means…

Understanding what people want from and think of us – by engaging with, responding to, and respecting the views of commissioners, referrers, service users, carers, the wider community and other stakeholders
Working collaboratively with our partners in social care
Developing the commercial and marketing expertise needed to thrive in a competitive environment and respond effectively to opportunities for growth
Managing our resources effectively and developing financial surpluses which we can then reinvest to fund developments
Increasing referrals because we have earned a reputation for clinical excellence.

King’s Health Partners

King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a formal, strategic alliance involving SLaM, King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts.

An Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is one of several terms which are used to describe an organisation which delivers both health care to patients and health-related science and research, usually with a well developed teaching and education role as well. This type of organisation is fairly common amongst the leading hospitals and universities around the world.

One of the principles which underpins the idea of a successful AHSC is that the best healthcare research in the world is of limited value unless you are actually able to put it into practice for the benefit of patients. At SLaM, we have had some success in doing this, for example in the development of services promoting early intervention, as a result of our unique relationship with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. But we are not yet in a position where we can say that we are doing this reliably, consistently and systematically across everything we do.

The fact that the Trust and Institute nmanage the UK’s only Biomedical Research Centre for mental health means we have a real opportunity to ensure that lessons from research feed directly into patient care - from ‘bench to bedside’ as it is sometimes described. Our involvement in the AHSC takes this work to another level.

While remaining an organisation in our own right, we have joined a more formal strategic alliance with one of the world’s leading research led universities and two of London’s most successful acute NHS Foundation Trusts. This will enable us to create a centre where research, teaching and clinical practice are brought together for the benefit of patients.

King’s Health Partners will bring real and lasting benefits to the local communities of south London. Local people will continue to benefit from access to world leading healthcare experts and clinical services which are underpinned by the latest research knowledge. There will also be benefits for the local area in regeneration, education, jobs and economic growth.

At the same time as competing on the international stage, our focus remains on providing local people with the very best that the NHS has to offer. The essence of our Trust is in its name – we are rooted in South London and grounded in the clinical reality of serving an inner city local community with high levels of mental illness.

Key facts about King’s Health Partners

One of top 25 Universities in the world
Three of the UK’s leading NHS Foundation Trusts
Seven hospitals
Over 150 community based services
2 million patients each year
25,000 employees
19,500 students
£2 billion annual turnover

Partners

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust works closely with many other organisations in the local health, social care, education and research communities. To visit their websites, click the links on this page.

Academic Health Sciences Centre

Local NHS Partners