Excellent care for communities

As Sussex’s largest employer, with more than 20,000 staff and a £1.65 billion annual turnover, we play an important role in shaping the region’s social and economic wellbeing. In the Big Conversation, our staff and partners said they want us to be more visible, accessible, and impactful in the communities we serve. As part of our promise to being that strong community partner, we will commit to:

1. Creating job opportunities for local people

We will do this by becoming the leading employer of choice in Sussex through our offer of diverse and supported career pathways that attract the best local talent. We will prioritise opportunities for underrepresented groups, including care leavers, veterans, and people with disabilities. We will further develop and expand supported employment pathways and collaborate with Job Centres and community organisations to ensure our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve.

2. Partnering with local schools, colleges and universities

We will do this to inspire the next generation of healthcare professionals and improve employment routes into our Trust. Career fairs and community outreach activity will help young people and career changers explore roles in the NHS and improve access to health education, while we will expand opportunities around apprenticeships, T Levels, work experience and placements too.

3. Choosing suppliers and services to support our local community

We will increase the proportion of our spending that goes to local suppliers and businesses to support the economic health, and social and environmental wellbeing of Sussex. Our approach will support local businesses, reduce our carbon footprint, and ensure our investments benefit the communities we serve. To achieve this, we will increase local procurement beyond our current 10% spending rate and embed social and environmental criteria in all our supplier selection decisions.

4. Sharing our spaces

We will make our hospital spaces more accessible to the community by inviting youth groups, community partners and local organisations to use our facilities. This will strengthen relationships, promote wellbeing, and create more welcoming environments.

The government’s 10-year Health Plan confirmed that the future of healthcare lies in prevention, early intervention, and care delivered closer to home. Our new strategy’s embrace of this shift of emphasis away from reactive treatment and towards proactive prevention is aligned with our leadership position in the Sussex Provider Collaborative and responds to the needs of our ageing population and the feedback of partners who want more joined-up, community-based services.

This transformation will reduce pressure on our acute services, improve outcomes, and ensure care is accessible, equitable, and tailored to local needs. To make the change, we will focus on four commitments that will make the biggest difference:

1. Working with partners to transform the health system

As Chair of the Sussex Provider Collaborative, we will do this by supporting integrated planning and delivery across the region to promote more equitable and sustainable healthcare; and by building on the success of our public health initiatives, such as the Hepatitis C elimination program, to lead system-wide transformation that promotes and supports the development of prevention-focused care.

2. Moving services into the community

We will do this by working with Neighbourhood Health Services and Integrated Community Teams to expand outreach for frailty, renal, and MSK care, and support virtual wards and remote monitoring to reduce unnecessary admissions and enable earlier discharges. To achieve this, we will identify and relocate services better suited for the community and increase our collaboration with community teams to develop new pathways.

3. Finding new ways of working with partners

We will deepen our partnerships with local communities and organisations to co-design services that directly meet the needs of our local population. This includes expanding community services and our collaboration with voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. We will do this by strengthening ‘advice and guidance’ support for GPs to reduce unnecessary referrals and use digital tools to improve care coordination and patient experience.

4. Collaborating to address healthcare inequalities

We will do this by strengthening our partnerships with local VCSE organisations to improve access for marginalised groups, including people with learning disabilities, mental health needs, complex healthcare needs, and language barriers. These new collaborations will help us tailor our services to communities facing inequalities. We will review and enhance our pathways to improve access and promote the inclusive design of care pathways.

We want to be one of the greenest NHS trusts in the country. This ambition reflects the views of our staff and patients, aligns with national net zero goals, and reflects our belief that environmental responsibility is integral to excellent care.

Since 2010, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by 37% and cut anaesthetic gas emissions by 87%. We will now build on our leadership in sustainable healthcare, including our founding role in the Circular Economy Healthcare Alliance and our partnerships with universities and industries, to go further again. By embedding sustainability into everything we do, from procurement to digital transformation, we will protect the planet, improve health outcomes, and lead the way in green healthcare. Our strategy sets out four commitments that will help us achieve this goal:

1. Reducing and reusing by default

Minimising waste is a top priority for us. By reducing the waste we produce, we can save money and support our long-term net-zero ambitions. We will do this by building on successful initiatives like the ‘Gloves Off’ campaign to integrate sustainability into our daily decision-making. To do this, we will reduce our consumption of single-use products, expand sustainability training for all staff, and integrate waste reduction into all appropriate clinical and procurement practices.

2. Cutting our carbon footprint

We will do this by expanding renewable energy generation across our sites through solar panel installations at Princess Royal, Southlands, and St Richard’s hospitals; by decarbonising heating systems, starting with Worthing Hospital’s connection to the town’s new heat network. This will not only power our hospitals with clean energy but integrate sustainable practices into our estates and digital planning.

3. Creating a green test bed for innovators

We will launch a Green Test Bed in partnership with universities and industry. This initiative will support real-world testing of sustainable technologies, attract greater investment, and strengthen the life sciences sector in Sussex. It will also position our trust as a national leader in green innovation. We will specifically launch a Green NHS Health Technology Test Bed to promote collaboration between the NHS and industry to drive evidence-based innovation.

4. Making travel, cleaner, smarter and more efficient We will do this by beginning the transition to an electrified transport fleet and expanding our solar-powered charging infrastructure. We will electrify the majority of our transport fleet by 2027 and continue to promote sustainable travel for staff and patients, reduce inter-site transport through digital transformation, and consolidate support services to minimise unnecessary journeys.

Partnership is at the heart of how we deliver care: ideas and feedback from patients, volunteers, charities and community organisations were essential in shaping this strategy. Over the next five years, we will build on these relationships by involving more patients and voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the design of our services and improving how we work with our volunteers and charities. By working together, we will enhance patient experience, improve our hospital environments, and ensure our services are shaped by those who use them. We are making four commitments to doing this:

1. Involving patients in the design of services and sites

We will do this by improving how we receive and respond to feedback, and supporting patients with lived experience in contributing to pathway reviews and site development plans. To achieve this, we will reform our complaints and major service change feedback systems to ensure patient voices are instrumental in delivering change across the Trust.

2. Working with organisations that know our communities

There are many fantastic VCSE organisations in Sussex that support people with complex healthcare needs. These groups engage a wide range of communities, and we can use their reach and expertise to help improve access and outcomes for underserved populations. We will do this by removing barriers to collaboration and developing improved processes to co-design services with these community partners.

3. Being a good partner, locally and nationally

We will do this by maintaining strong relationships with councils, political leaders, and the Integrated Care Board, and through the joint planning and problem-solving that will make sure our services are integrated into wider community strategies. To do this, we will maintain and further develop strategic partnerships across Sussex, strengthen our collaboration with local organisations to improve transport links, and contribute to regional and local planning to ensure our service changes align with system-wide priorities.

4. Creating positive volunteer experiences

We will do this by developing a new approach to volunteering that enhances the experience for everyone involved and will create more opportunities for volunteers to contribute to service improvement and patient care. This will begin with the launch of a refreshed voluntary services programme to improve training, induction, and support processes. We will also expand the number of volunteer roles and celebrate their contributions.

5. Improving how we work with our charities

We will strengthen our collaboration with our hospital charities to support their fundraising efforts and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Our charities raise millions of pounds every year, but complicated processes can make it difficult to spend this money. To improve this, we will align charity priorities with our Trust strategy, reduce barriers to implementing funded projects, and improve communication and collaboration to increase both income and the impact of charitable funding. We will also specifically support charity-led innovation and fundraising activities.