NHS Merseyside - North West SHA

Key focus/scope

The Merseyside pilot is a joint project involving Knowsley, Liverpool and Sefton primary care trusts together with Mersey Care NHS Trust, a specialist mental health trust providing secondary level care in community and inpatient settings.

The pilot will focus on people aged 16+ with a severe and/or enduring mental illness, receiving services from Mersey Care and subject to the Care Programme Approach. They will be people requiring either a (usually high cost) service commissioned externally from independent or third sector providers, or who would benefit from a non-standard and non-recurrent additional service.

Overview of pilot and its purpose

The pilot will test the hypothesis that access to a service provision, over which the patient can exercise choice, will improve both their level of subjective satisfaction and also their mental health and recovery. For instance this might be in the form of an additional service - a piece of equipment, funding access to a leisure amenity or similar - or ongoing extra-contractual service provision commissioned to meet their individual needs. The pilot will also test the suitability of personal health budgets in mental health.

Objectives of pilot

The pilot will provide the opportunity for participating NHS bodies and local authority partners to examine their existing processes (eg funding allocation panels, contracts, financial systems) in the light of personalisation, and to reshape these where necessary so that they are fit for purpose.

This information has been provided by NHS Merseyside.