The Isle of Wight’s mental health, community and learning disability services will be brought under the same banner with mainland health trusts in Spring next year – but Island services will stay local, a health boss has confirmed.

The Boards of the Solent NHS Trust, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Isle of Wight Trust have signed off on the creation of ‘Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’.

Bringing together all the services, the new combined Trust is expected to come into being in April 2024.

The driving factors behind the creation of the Trust are the need to transform services to meet the increasing demand and complexity of health issues and to improve the consistency of care.

An independent review in 2022 found that a combined Trust was required to deliver sustainable services which would reduce health inequalities, provide consistent and accessible local care, and improve outcomes for communities.

The IW NHS Trust’s current community mental health services, including CAHMS, will be transported across to the new Trust – with the IW Trust continuing to deliver acute and ambulance services for the Island.

Dr Lesley Stevens, director of mental health and learning disabilities at the IW NHS Trust, told the County Press: “We are really pleased about the change. We are going to be part of a big organisation, but we are going to still be on the Island!

“Services will stay where they are, we are not making any plans for moving services off Island, but it does mean that we will have access to a specialist organisation that will give us all sorts of benefits.”

Following the switch, there will be no planned increase or decrease in Islanders having to travel to the mainland for services, the Trust said.

Staffing has been a concern for the Trust’s mental health services, but under the new banner, staff can arrive from other Trusts and support Island staff.

For current staff, Dr Stevens says the biggest change they are likely to see for some time is the name of the organisation on their pay cheques, adding: “The changes I expect to see will be over time. We are not expecting a big bang, and suddenly everything changes.”

“But we will eventually start to see real significant change, but it will be done with us, with the Island services, and with Island people.”

Dr Steven insists the benefits will not just be one-way, with mainland Trusts also benefitting from the Island being involved.

“There are things that we do on the Island that are streets ahead of the mainland,” Dr Stevens explained, “and one of these things is that we have got really good connections between primary care, GP services, mental health and community nursing, so we get to share our model with our mainland partners.”

Ron Shields, CEO Designate for Hampshire and IW Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As individual Trusts, we have worked diligently to provide great care to our communities, but we see the potential to reduce health inequalities and truly deliver to a higher standard, with greater effectiveness, by combining our workforce, our strengths and expertise.

“Hampshire and IW Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will be a significant voice in health and care, raising the profile of the importance of mental health, learning disability and community services to the life outcomes of our population.”