Welcome from Michael Bernard (designate Senior Independent Director) and Adrian Thorne, designate Lead Governor, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

This is an exciting and unique time for you to join our team here in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We are creating a new, combined provider Foundation Trust to deliver the vast majority of NHS community, mental health services and learning disability services across the county. Furthermore, we will be a major partner with and provider of Primary Care for a population of nearly two million people.

Set to launch in October 2024, the name of our new Trust will be Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The new organisation will bring together services that are currently provided by Solent NHS Trust and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust (including mental health and community services on the Isle of Wight).

In doing so we have a wonderful opportunity to improve access, consistency of care and outcomes for patients and communities. We are at the heart of developing the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS), taking a strategic approach to delivering and transforming healthcare for our local population. We are also focused on ‘Place’ based delivery by building effective relationships with all our partners, third sector colleagues, and the many different communities we serve.

In providing county-wide health services, we work closely with three local authorities, four acute foundation trusts and three universities. The increasingly closer alignment of health and care, both nationally and locally, offers real opportunities for the new Foundation Trust to support improvements in population health as well as innovation in healthcare provision.

A central tenet of what we do is to work in partnership with the people who use our services, their carers, and their families, such that their views, experiences, and particular needs inform our decision-making and actions.

We are now seeking to appoint to a new Chair as Project Fusion comes to its next phase, at what will be a crucial and formative stage for our new organisation. If you feel that your values match ours, and you are as ambitious as we are in what we want to deliver for our communities, then we would love to hear from you.

We hope that this website provides you with the information you need, and please contact GatenbySanderson if you have more questions.

All the best,

Michael Bernard, designate Senior Independent Director, and Adrian Thorne, designate Lead Governor