Integration of health and care moves further ahead in Bury

Bringing together health services and social care in Bury is to continue at pace under new localised arrangements.

A new Integrated Care Partnership will come into effect 1 July as part of national changes to the way the NHS and local councils support people’s health and social care.

Each of the 10 Greater Manchester districts will have an ICP, which takes over from the existing Clinical Commissioning Groups and will also include NHS organisations, the council, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises and other partners.

Each partnership will work with the public in their area, and with the wider system across Greater Manchester, to enable people to live healthier lives and plan and deliver better health and social care services for all.

The Bury ICP will be led by Geoff Little, who is already the chief accountable officer for Bury CCG as well as the chief executive of Bury Council.

He said: “For several years now, Bury has taken the lead in creating a fully integrated health and care system and we’ve made tremendous progress with that.

“The value of this joined-up approach was certainly proved during the Covid pandemic, when staff across a wide range of disciplines worked closely together to look after our population during unprecedented times and provided continuity of services.

“We recognise that there are some real challenges ahead of us: on waiting lists, on primary care, on access to mental health services. While these are not unique to Bury, they are very real for our residents.”

He added: “This new arrangement will bring a renewed focus on improved partnership working in health and care all across Greater Manchester.

“We will continue with our journey to join up, as far as possible, how health and care services work in Bury, and how we can support residents to be as healthy and independent as possible.”

At the heart of the new system is the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care, whose chief executive designate Mark Fisher said: “This is an exciting new era for Greater Manchester and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’d like to welcome the new place-based leads and am looking forward to working with them as they come into post.

“We are all building on a strong history of partnership working, most notably after the devolution of health and social care in 2016, and our priorities to tackle health inequalities and deliver high quality NHS and social care services will remain and be amplified. Our partnerships at a local level will help us to collaborate more closely than ever before and improve the health and wellbeing of all.”

Place-based leads in each locality will be accountable to both the Integrated Care Board Chief Executive and the relevant local authority via the Locality Board, and will oversee delegated resources from NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care.

The Locality Board, made up of people from the local authority, the NHS, the voluntary sector and wider partners reflective of each place, will drive local integrated care partnerships at neighbourhood and district level.

ENDS

Photo: Geoff Little has been appointed the place-based lead for health and care integration.

Notes to editors:

Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnershipis the name of the city region’s integrated care system and will replace Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.

The partnership includes NHS organisations, councils, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, VCSE colleagues and others, all working together to support people’s health and care.

NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Careis the name of the new statutory NHS organisation, which will be live from 1 July 2022. It will be responsible for allocation of, and accounting for, NHS resources.

Mark Fisher CBE has recently been confirmed as the new Chief Executive designate.

The organisation will be overseen by an NHS GM Integrated Care Board, which has recently appointed Sir Richard Leese as Chair designate.

All staff currently employed by the 10 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) and Greater Manchester Shared Services (GMSS) will transfer to NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care on 1 July.