Community services in West Lancashire are currently provided by HCRG Care Group. The community health services contract, along with an urgent care services contract, was originally awarded to Virgin Care in 2016 and went live in May 2017. Virgin Care was bought out by HCRG Care Group in 2022. Both contract lengths were for five years with an option to extend for two years. In 2022, NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group extended both contracts by two years to the end of April 2024.  

Since July 2022, the ICB has held responsibility for planning NHS services in Lancashire and South Cumbria and approved continuation of both contracts from May 2024 to the end of March 2026. This allowed more time to review the community services offer in West Lancashire, consider future arrangements, and carry out engagement with providers and patients and the public.   

The main themes which emerged from various patient and public engagement exercises were that people supported a move to more care in the community and providing care closer to home, but that care needs to be: 

• Easily accessible  
• More joined up and better co-ordinated  
• Person-centred  
• Timely   

People would also like to see better communication and availability of information as well as direct access to the person/team delivering the service and better use of technology.  

The ICB intends to undertake a separate procurement exercise of urgent care services in West Lancashire with a new contract also commencing from April 2026.   

The ICB’s vision is to have a high-quality, community-centred health and care system by 2035 focused on ‘well care’ rather than ‘sick care’ by prioritising prevention, wellbeing and early intervention. 

To help achieve this vision, the ICB is undertaking an extensive programme of work to transform community care. The ambition is to keep people safe and well at home, by bringing care closer to where they live and treating more people outside of a hospital setting where possible. 

The primary goal for community services transformation is to make sure everyone has equitable access to services which keep them healthier for longer and out of hospital where at all possible.    

There is a focus on three areas:    

Creating healthy communities: we want to connect people to other people in their local communities, as well as services available from local partners and groups, activities and events. We want people to take control of their health and wellbeing.    

Integrated Neighbourhood Teams: we want to bring together health and care teams and professionals, as well as the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector to improve care for neighbourhood populations. A team of teams, sharing information and resources to improve health and wellbeing by tackling health inequalities.    

Enhanced care in the community: we want to offer support which allows people to recover and increase their independence at home or as close to home as possible. This will bring together care teams to support people with physical care needs, crisis services, home-based and bed-based support. 

The ICB needs to  ensure that the future provider of adult community services in West Lancashire is the most capable of improving the quality and efficiency of services and adding value to patients’ lives, while delivering care in line with the ICB’s vision. 

Patients can still expect to have access to high quality community services throughout the procurement process and beyond, and the professionals who provide their care will not change as a result of this process starting. The ICB greatly values the skills, local knowledge and experience of community service staff and have listened to their views which will inform the future model of care.  

The ICB is keen to ensure the new model of care is both informed by and built upon this strong and committed workforce and will continue to liaise with the incumbent staff impacted by this process. In addition, it is important to note that all procurement exercises are subject to stringent NHS workforce regulation and employment laws. These provide existing staff with certain safeguards in respect of their employment.