Paul Woodward's Speech

We are all here today because we share a common interest.  More likely, it is a shared passion: To make things better ~ make the provision of healthcare better ~ by building partnerships and creating solutions. By being innovative. 

It’s a simple passion to make a difference where it matters, when it matters.

All too often the concepts of innovation and creativity are stifled by the recurring arguments of cost and practicality. Too often the ‘day job’ ~ the need to meet targets and deliver against expectation and budget ~ stifles our ability to step back and take a hard look at the reality of the issues.

Today we are here to share with you some of the success of our innovations in modern healthcare; Share our desire to develop innovative thinking not constrained by targets and out-moded practices predicated purely on the need today, but designed to provide solutions for tomorrow.

Our speakers today are also innovators and all share our vision: Sadly Phil Hope, The Minister for the Third Sector, was due to speak, but is unable to join us due to a bereavement – our thoughts are with him and his family.

Campbell Robb, Director General at the Office of the Third Sector  has kindly stepped into the breach.

Professor Jane Seymour, who leads the Sue Ryder Care Centre for Palliative and End of Life Care Studies at the University of Nottingham will speak as will Sally Laws, who uses one of our highly praised innovative services in Suffolk.

Sue Ryder Care makes a very real difference to people’s lives and the lives of families and carers, enabling them to take control, and live the way they want.

We provide support, from diagnosis through to specialist end of life care services, enabling people to die free from pain, with dignity, in the place of their choice.  

Innovation is at the heart of Sue Ryder Care’s vision – ‘Care that liberates lives’.

The exciting role of Third Sector as a key partner for innovation is again being encouraged through initiatives such as Lord Darzi’s review, World Class Commissioning, as well as being highlighted in the Third Sector Review, which describes us as ‘catalysts for change’ and ‘developing dynamic, innovative solutions’.

With regard to the Darzi Review, released in the last hour, Sue Ryder Care is already embodying its principles by taking the lead as a third sector organisation providing innovative care solutions.  The charity’s vision supports government policy by helping more people to live independently. We hope that its implementation will make for more effective working in the future

We are extremely supportive of this agenda and our innovations have been recognised at local and national level. Importantly they are recognised by the people who have been able to live more independently as a result. And that is something to celebrate. 

Last year we opened a supported living service in Ipswich, offering people with advanced neurological conditions the opportunity to live independently, with specialised support from their nearby Sue Ryder Care neurological care centre.

The concept sounds simple – but we know that in practice, helping create the conditions where a person with severe and progressive illness can live the independent life they want requires highly specialised input and organisation to be truly successful.

You’ll hear shortly from Sally Laws who has experienced a pioneering day-care service supporting people living with Multiple Sclerosis through our ‘5Rs’ project which has received national recognition for ‘good practice’ by the Department of Health.

Similarly, our Palliative Initiatives in Neurological Care programme, or PINC for short, has been recognised as a ‘best practice’ example by the DH End of Life Care programme, and we are looking to develop it further.

Currently if you require palliative care, but don’t have Cancer, you will be significantly disadvantaged in your ability to access palliative care services in many parts of the country.

PINC develops and adapts established palliative care tools to work in care home settings for people with a range of conditions at the end of their lives.

Most of our innovative work is financed through voluntary donations. However, our capacity to innovate is heavily curtailed when we are required to cover gaps in funding where local commissioners are not paying the true cost of the basic level of care they commission from the charity.

Government policy, through the Compact, states that this underfunding should not be occurring. However, last year Sue Ryder Care subsidised the delivery of local services by £7 million in direct care costs. The direct care costs of our palliative care services alone were under-funded by £6 million.

If we use Acevo’s model of full cost recovery funding, this jumps to a staggering £13 million.

Let me be clear. I do not expect commissioners of palliative care to fully fund all our services only the true cost of the basic care they have chosen to commission on behalf of their resident population.

At Sue Ryder Care we also understand the need for a robust evidence base for our work and later will hear from Professor Jane Seymour on the work of her team at the Sue Ryder Care Centre for Palliative and End of Life Care Studies.

If you look across the room you’ll see two giant maps. Our Health Informatics Service have ranked the whole country, following a national survey across each PCT, Local Authority and Strategic Health Authority to show the current level of provision for neurological and palliative care, against the need for each population.

The results in some parts are disturbing - emphasising the fact that where you live can still determine the service you receive. I’d urge you to talk with the team them and find out how your area fares.

You may well be surprised. Or shocked. Either way the results are very revealing.

Building on this work, early findings from our forthcoming research means we now know that out of the eight Strategic Health Authorities who responded to our survey, five did not have a strategy in place to implement the National Service Framework for Long Term Conditions. Bearing in mind the NSF is now three years in, this is a cause for concern.

We also have The Compact – a well documented framework for how business relationships should be conducted between statutory commissioners and third sector providers of care.

It is clear that some of the levers required for providing better care and support in the future to stimulate innovation are already in place.

The problem is they aren’t being implemented.

Arguably the biggest challenge, in partnership with central Government, is to make these policies work so we can all get on with providing better and more innovative services together. That is why, I hope, you are all here.

I’d like to thank Dr Ian Gibson for sponsoring this event, and for his ongoing support of the charity’s work.