About Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Introduction
We are the largest NHS community provider in Sussex, we provide medical, nursing and therapeutic care to over 9,000 people every day, serving a community of 1.3 million people. We work in people’s homes, clinics, intermediate care units and care homes across the county. Each year our clinicians see adult or child patients more than 2.6 million times, caring for people from their earliest moments until their last. We gave more than 965,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccination over the past few years before our role in the vaccination programme came to an end in February 2023.
Our services innovate and win awards. Our Freedom to Speak Up team were successful in winning the Health Services Journal Award for Freedom to Speak Up Team of the Year, entry title: ‘Caring for our Speak Up Ambassadors, Improving our Speak Up culture’. In December we were named a 2022 Climate Champion by Health Care Without Harm for our sustainability work through our Care Without Carbon programme. And our community palliative and end of life care nursing services were praised for their focus on patient-centred nursing care, winning the award for nursing in the community at the prestigious Nursing Times Awards.
We have a charity, Sussex Community NHS Charity, which awarded over £295,000 in grants last year to a variety of projects from across the Trust. These included refurbishing staff rest rooms to help improve staff wellbeing, providing additional staff training to help staff develop in their careers, the purchase of advanced software and equipment to enhance patient care and electric bikes for our community nursing teams.
What we do
We provide essential medical, nursing and therapeutic care to adults, children and families throughout a wide area of Sussex, both in their homes and dedicated clinical settings. In total we have nearly 6,000 members of staff and volunteers working across Brighton & Hove, the High Weald Lewes and Havens area of East Sussex and West Sussex.
Our staff work in multi-disciplinary teams combining a range of specialisms and backgrounds and linking closely with other NHS providers and health and social care partners to offer integrated, seamless services to our patients. Some of what we do includes the following.
- Community Rehabilitation – Supporting people with complex health needs and long-term conditions or people needing end of life
- Community Rapid Response – Assessing and caring for patients with urgent care needs, helping to keep them out of hospital.
- Intermediate Care – Short Term Recovery and Rehabilitation - Keeping patients out of hospital where we can, or helping them to leave hospital when this is the right thing for them.
- Integrated Discharge – Working with patients, carers and hospital staff, to help a patient return home from a hospital stay as soon as
- Health Promotion – Supporting people to improve health and well-
- Minor Injuries Units and Urgent Treatment Centres – Seeing people who have minor injuries or need urgent medical attention but aren’t in a life-threatening situation.
- Children and Families – Coordinating flexible services for children and families through our health visitors and our child development
- Specialist services including Chailey Clinical Services, Special Care Dental Services and Sussex Rehabilitation Centre.
For more information, visit our website here.
You can also view a list of our services here.
Sussex Community at a glance
Vision and Values
Our vision is of a health and care system that has excellent care at the heart of the community.
We recognise the different care people need throughout their lives striving to ensure they Start their lives well; Live well during their lives and age well as their lives come to an end. Across the age range, we care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, from our health visitors caring for new-born and young children through to our multi-disciplinary community teams delivering end of life care.
In all we do our work is driven by our vision of: “Excellent Care at the Heart Of the Community”.
In all we do our work is driven by our vision of: “Excellent Care at the Heart Of the Community”.
To realise our vision we will remain true to our shared values:
COMPASSIONATE CARE
Caring for people in ways we would want for our loved ones.
WORKING TOGETHER
As a team, forging strong links with our patients, the wider public and our health and care partners, so we can rise to the challenges we face together.
ACHIEVING AMBITIONS
For our users, for our staff, for our teams, for our organisation.
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE
Because our patients and partners deserve nothing less.
