The Isle of Wight Sensory Service, which is jointly commissioned by the Isle of Wight Council and the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been shortlisted for a national award.
The sensory service, which is delivered by Action on Hearing Loss, has been shortlisted in the ‘Improved partnerships between health and local government’ category at the Health Service Journal (HSJ) awards, to be held on 23rd November 2016.
The service innovatively integrates health and social care and hearing and sight loss – offering holistic support to help people with hearing loss, sight loss or those who are deafblind to remain independent and part of their community.
Action on Hearing Loss is supported by Action for Blind People and through the Isle of Wight Sensory Service provides people with information, advice, signposting, assessments for equipment loans, hearing aid maintenance, befriending services and employment support – all of which is delivered from accessible community-based locations or at home and all through a single point of access.
The HSJ awards have been running for 35 years and recognise, celebrate and promote the finest achievements in the NHS and showcase them to the service’s most influential leaders.
Having already demonstrated outstanding practice and innovation that has helped to improve patient care and enhance value and efficiency, the Isle of Wight Sensory Service will now have to complete presentations and interviews to a judging panel made up of senior and influential figures from the health sector. These include:
• Sir David Dalton, chief executive, Salford Foundation Trust
• Professor Steve Field, chief inspector of general practice, Care Quality Commission
• Jonathan Fielden, director of specialised commissioning, NHS England
• Sir Malcolm Grant, chair, NHS England
• Ian Dodge, national director of commissioning strategy, NHS England
Councillor Steve Stubbings, Executive member for adult social care and integration at the Isle of Wight Council, said: .
“I am really proud of the Island’s sensory service, which is a great example of partnership working and commissioning making a really positive difference to Island residents. This is a perfect demonstration of the My Life A Full Life ethos which is all about providing person-centred holistic health and social care services to help people take control of their own health and wellbeing.”
Alison Geddes, commissioning manager (community) at the Isle of Wight CCG, said:
“The Isle of Wight CCG values this service because the expertise of the staff and volunteers is evidenced by the excellent outcomes achieved. The service enables the voluntary sector to be integrated as part of the whole audiology patient pathway and exemplifies the philosophy of our New Model of Care embraced by the Isle of Wight under the My Life a Full Life programme.”
Louise Pritchard, executive director services at Action on Hearing Loss, added:
“Our Isle of Wight Sensory Service is a fantastic example of just what can be achieved through the development of productive partnerships. Action on Hearing Loss is passionate about working with others to achieve the best results. The service has focused on investing in positive partnerships which have produced excellent outcomes, value for money, a sustainable platform from which to further develop and most importantly the service is grounded in the reality of and shaped by, the people we are working with every day.”
