South West London CCG Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21

Sutton Development of the “Sutton System” during 2020-21 Sutton has a long history of positive, collaborative working between health organisations and the local authority, which provides a strong base for the new place-based arrangements that have been announced recently by NHS England. The advent of Covid-19 created a clear catalyst for change within Sutton and unleashed innovation in service development and in new ways of working across disciplines and organisations. The pandemic created a unifying mission in Sutton and local integration was supported by the creation of new, agile leadership structures. In essence, two weekly inter-agency meetings were developed; the Health & Care Executive, comprising a smaller group of key senior leaders, and the Sutton System Leaders, comprising a broader representation of stakeholders and focusing on problem solving and transformation. • Primary Care Network development PCNs were crucial to the creation of agile and innovative solutions to pandemic related challenges. New local structures were developed as part of the Covid response, including a ‘virtual ward’ to support avoidable hospital admission and hospital discharge for respiratory patients (involving hospital consultants and community-based staff), and community response teams (CRTs) which, among other things, coordinated support to care homes and specific local populations, such as people with learning difficulties or mental illness. The virtual ward and CRTs are highlighted in more detail below. • Development of engagement with local voluntary sector organisations Collaboration between the statutory and voluntary sectors also accelerated significantly as part of the pandemic response. Covid-19 generated both the opportunity and the will to take engagement to a new level. This started with efforts to support shielding residents locally and extended to mobilising volunteers to support the local flu vaccination campaign in Autumn 2020 and the Covid-19 vaccination programme from December onward. This was achieved through the local “health champions” model developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a key role of the Sutton Health Champions is to disseminate important information to their community networks. Sutton Volunteers, coordinated by the Sutton Volunteer Centre, also provided important support to the Nonsuch Mansion Vaccination Centre (see below). Deploying volunteers during Covid has delivered significant value to the volunteers themselves as well wider social value generated by the volunteering activity. Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 | 55