Daily Insight: Share nicely… or else

Two trusts are to share a joint chief executive following threats from NHS England.

NHSE had told North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals FT they could face regulatory action if they did not move “at pace” towards shared leadership.

The trusts have now announced they will share a joint chief executive, with a recruitment process beginning imminently.

This threat came in a highly critical report which criticised members of North Tees trust board for “deliberately” obstructing the move towards a joint CEO.

NHSE’s report followed the resignations of five of six North Tees non-executive directors – the report said the conduct of some of the NEDs “was not consistent with accepted standards of professional business conduct”.

But two of the former North Tees NEDs have now told HSJ they were justified in their response to the issues – describing a “lack of due diligence” in the way the plans were put forward.

Big plans

An acute trust which last year made the innovative move to directly provide social care is planning to expand its services even further.

Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust will grow its “Care Northumbria” domiciliary care offering, increasing staff numbers from around 30 to 200 by the end of the financial year. The trust is also considering entering the care home market in the future.

Northumbria Healthcare FT chief executive Sir Jim Mackey told HSJ that around 20 other NHS trusts have become direct providers of domiciliary care since Northumbria’s services were set up.

He said councils were initially worried Northumbria Healthcare’s domiciliary care service would “destabilise” the local care market, but these fears have since been allayed, adding: “Our councils have been very good, and with us on this whole thing.”

He said: “Interestingly, quite a lot of the market reached out to us and said: ‘Thank God for that – we’ve been wanting to change this for ages and we can’t get anyone to listen.’”

The cost of the domiciliary care service has so far been largely funded through council income, and, in the short term, the trust will seek more council funding for the service as it expands.