Tuesday 5 May 2026
Dear colleague
Welcome to Updates from Group Board for the Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG). This Group is made up of Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH).
The Group Board operates as the joint board and decision-making body for both statutory organisations and this update is designed to inform colleagues and stakeholders of the discussion and decisions being taken at both the Group and individual Trust level.
We held our most recent Group Board meeting on Tuesday 5 May 2026, which was open for members of the public to join virtually. The full Board meeting papers can be found on the Trust Board papers page on the website.
Patient story: The Board received an amazing story about the children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service, and how they have transformed access to therapy for pre-school aged children across Lincolnshire over the last year. This service supports pre-school aged children with a range of speech and language and communication needs. Recognising previous issues with access to this specialist service, the team introduced drop-in sessions at family hubs as part of a pilot of a new service model. The story featured River and his mum, who have accessed the service and found huge benefit from it.
The team also talked about work that now needs to be done to improve the service for school-aged children, as the model they have designed won’t translate for this age group. They described how they will be working with partners across the county, including schools, to make improvements to access for older children. See the full story on Youtube.
Industrial action: Resident doctors participated in a further round of national industrial action coordinated by the British Medical Association (BMA) from Tuesday 7 to Monday 13 April. During this period, the Group maintained above 95% of elective activity, and we would like to formally recognise and thank colleagues across clinical, managerial and corporate teams whose professionalism, flexibility and commitment ensured the continued delivery of safe and effective care for our patients.
Seated and Corridor Care Areas Quality and Safety Framework: The Board received an update on the current position regarding corridor care, alongside actions being taken across the Group to reduce and ultimately eliminate its use.
It was emphasised that corridor care is not an acceptable long‑term position, as it can compromise patient privacy, dignity and overall experience. However, within the context of ongoing system pressures, the organisation is maintaining a strong operational and clinical grip to actively mitigate risks, with corridor care monitored daily, with operational calls, senior nursing safety huddles, real‑time patient tracking systems, and staffing reviews to ensure safe care delivery. Environmental and safety risks are also actively managed in partnership with infection prevention and control, fire, and health and safety teams.
A gap analysis has identified opportunities to strengthen consistency, particularly in risk assessments, medication management, environmental readiness, patient communication, and data triangulation. The new quality and safety framework will support assurance reporting and reinforce the organisation’s commitment to safely reducing and ultimately eliminating corridor care.
Neighbourhood health planning: During March, NHS England published the Neighbourhood Health Framework and the new population-based delivery models, setting out expectations for how systems should develop more integrated, preventative and personalised care closer to people’s homes, in line with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. The framework sets out the foundation steps to be taken in 2026/27 to develop local neighbourhood health plans for 2027/28, delivered through joint working. Working with Integrated Care Board and local authority partners, the Group is actively contributing to this agenda as part of system plans to develop local neighbourhood health arrangements during 2026/27.
Good news stories:
- Following receipt of full planning approval, a groundbreaking ceremony took place on Friday 13 March to mark the commencement of the development of the new Boston Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC). This milestone signifies the start of a 20-week demolition phase, after which construction of the £24.9m centre will commence. The new CDC will provide expanded diagnostic capability, including MRI and CT scanners, X-ray facilities, ultrasound rooms, outpatient consultation rooms and dedicated audiology space. Once operational, the centre will significantly increase local diagnostic capacity, supporting improved access and reduced waiting times for patients across this part of Lincolnshire. The facility is scheduled to open to patients in spring 2027.
- In parallel, renovation works at the Grantham CDC have been completed, creating three additional clinical rooms. This enhancement is already enabling additional clinics to be delivered from the centre, further increasing diagnostic capacity and patient throughput.
- Following the successful launch of Martha’s Law (Call for Concern) at Lincoln County Hospital and Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, four community hospital wards have now been among the first wave of community-based NHS services nationally to introduce the rapid review service. The Call for Concern initiative enables patients, families and carers who are worried about a patient’s deteriorating condition whilst on an inpatient ward to contact an independent clinical team directly for urgent advice and review. The service is now available to patients on inpatient wards at John Coupland Hospital, Gainsborough, County Hospital, Louth, Skegness District Hospital and Johnson Community Hospital, Spalding. This development strengthens existing patient safety safeguards by ensuring a timely clinical escalation and rapid review whenever a patient or relative feels it is needed.
- Nominations for the Group Staff Awards 2026 are now open, celebrating and recognising the dedication and achievements of community and hospital staff across the Group. A range of award categories acknowledge excellence in patient care, compassion and respect, teamwork and innovation. Nominations are welcomed from staff, patients and members of the public and can be made on the website.
Staff updates:
- The Group closed 2025/26 outside of its workforce plan for the year, with the variance driven predominantly by higher than planned Bank usage and substantive workforce changes, mostly within the acute part of the Group, which was not originally reflected in the workforce plan. Despite this position, there has been demonstrable improvement in grip and control around staffing numbers during 2025/26 through a vacancy control process and the introduction of a Quality Impact Assessment to support each vacancy request, which has led to reduced Bank and agency usage across ULTH and delivery of substantive workforce reductions within LCHS.
- The National Staff Survey (NSS) results were published during March 2026. There was an improvement in overall in response rates across both parts of the Group, with 49% for acute and 68% for community staff.
Survey results show a slight decrease across some scores, reflecting wider challenges experienced across the NHS. However, when benchmarked against regional and national peers, the Group continues to perform comparatively well and does not stand out as an outlier in key areas.
Focus is now on translating feedback into action, with culture workshops being held with care groups and corporate teams to identify priority actions based on survey results. These actions will be embedded into regular performance review processes, ensuring accountability and sustained progress.
Overall, the survey highlights valuable staff insight and reinforces the organisation’s commitment to listening, learning, and continuously improving staff experience.
Performance:
- The Group successfully delivered against a range of performance metrics during 2025/26. Performance against the urgent and emergency care four-hour standard strengthened towards the end of the year, with March 2026 delivery reaching 81.3%, reflecting the impact of focussed recovery actions. This performance has also been sustained into April 2026. This has also positively impacted the 12-hour performance standard. Against the referral to treatment time (RTT) waiting standard, the planned performance of 60% within 18 weeks was also exceeded, with delivery at 60.24%.
- The NHS National Oversight Framework (NOF) Quarter 3 ratings were published in March 2026. The NOF provides the primary mechanism through which NHS trusts are assessed and segmented against national quality, operational and financial metrics. Both Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH) showed significant improvements, reflecting the huge amount of effort that has been put into improvement in the quality of care provided to the residents of Lincolnshire. For this quarter LCHS has been placed in segment 2 (with the Trust 24th place out of 61 peer Trusts) and ULTH remains in segment 4 (with the Trust in 109th place out of 134 peer Trusts).
- New capability self-assessments have been published for provider trusts nationally, which measure organisations against a range of expectations around strategy, leadership and planning, quality of care and financial performance and oversight. NHS England assigned a single overall capability rating to each organisation, and it was announced in April 2026 that both ULTH and LCHS have been rated Amber-Green, indicating generally effective board leadership with some areas identified for further improvement.
Board changes:
- The Board formally welcomed Rebecca Brown as Group Chair. Over the past three years, she has made an invaluable contribution as a Non-Executive Director, providing thoughtful challenge, strong governance oversight and consistent support to both the Board and the Executive Leadership Team. Her insight, experience and commitment to the Group values have been greatly appreciated, and the Board would like to record its sincere thanks for the dedication and support shown during this period. We look forward to working even more closely with Rebecca in her new role as Chair as we continue to deliver our strategic priorities for the Group.
- The Board would like to formally record their sincere thanks to Professor Colin Farquharson for the leadership, professionalism and commitment he provided during his tenure as Group Chief Medical Officer. Professor Farquharson made a significant contribution to the Group’s clinical leadership, patient safety and quality agenda, and his support to the Board and Executive Leadership Team was greatly valued. He left the organisation on Tuesday 31 March with our very best wishes for the future. We are pleased to welcome Professor Ciro Rinaldi to the role of Group Chief Medical Officer. Professor Rinaldi commences this role at an important time, and we look forward to working closely with him as he builds on this strong foundation and continues to progress our ambitions for high-quality, compassionate care.
- The Board also formally welcomed Linda Jackson to her first meeting as Associate Non-Executive Director. Linda joins the Group after serving as Non-Executive Director at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS FT for 11 years and playing a key role in the move to a Group Model between NLAG and HUTH NHS Trust.
Finance: The Group has delivered a strong financial performance over the last financial year 2025/26, achieving its planned break-even position across both ULTH and LCHS. This represents a significant achievement and has been recognised nationally, with the Group receiving national deficit support funding to strengthen the cash position.
This was partly possible due to the delivery of a record £72.2 million efficiency programme during the year, marking a substantial increase on the previous year. While some savings were non-recurrent due to delays in transformational schemes, work continues to embed sustainable improvements. The organisation also delivered a 5% increase in activity, enabling more planned care patients to be treated, while simultaneously reducing the workforce establishment and cutting agency spend by 35%. These actions have driven strong productivity, outperforming national benchmarks.
The Group successfully utilised its full £131.4 million capital allocation, an investment which has supported improvements in estates, digital infrastructure, medical equipment, service redesign, and community access.
Looking ahead, key priorities for the next year include delivering an ambitious efficiency programme, maintaining activity levels, and strengthening workforce and cost controls. While challenges remain, there is confidence in building on last year’s strong performance.
If you have any feedback on the discussions at the Group board, please contact [email protected]
Kind regards
Rebecca Brown
Group Chair
Karen Dunderdale
Group Chief Executive