How we fit into the NHS Structure
As an NHS organisation, the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust is part of the national health service in the area.
The trust provides specialist mental health services, whilst specialist physical care is provided by the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn and the James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Underpinning this is the community care provided by the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) - NHS Norfolk, NHS Suffolk and NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney, who oversee GPs and other community services and hospitals.
The PCTs also play a vital role by acting as commissioners of services from the specialist Trusts, as does the Strategic Health Authority (SHA). In this way, the local PCTs and the SHA can decide on their local priorities for Norfolk, Suffolk and the East of England. This process also involves service users and their carers, so as to ensure commissioning is as responsive as possible to local needs.
The trust also works in partnership with other statutory and voluntary agencies (such as the County Councils, and local Housing Associations and charities) to ensure a comprehensive service to the local population.
The trust also provides a forensic psychiatric service for those referred from the judicial system, to all of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Nearly 4,000 staff are employed by the trust, to provide a variety of clinical and non-clinical support to service users. The non-clinical support is provided by the business support functions, eg: maintenance services, health records and other corporate functions. It is because of this integrated way of working that the trust is able to deliver innovative and quality services. This is also achieveable through joint and partnership working with other statutory and non-statutory bodies - for instance, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) works closely with the Local Authorities' education services, staff working with older people have links with the Alzheimer’s Society and Age Concern, and the Forensic Service works closely with the courts and Prison Service. All specialties work to re-integrate service users into the community
The work of the trust is regulated by Monitor and the Care Quality Commission.
Organisations we work with
The trust has working relationships and contractual agreements with the following organisations, this is not be a comprehensive list:
There is also a searchable source of self-help support groups, statutory and voluntary agencies covering the whole of Norfolk, called Heron. It has long been established as Norfolk's leading database of validated consumer health information and lists the services that the trust provides.