Stockport Health and Social Care providers sign new agreement

Stockport Health and Social Care providers have signed a significant new agreement to work together.

NHS Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council are adopting a new integrated commissioning approach for health and social care, a legal agreement to pool together £200m of local budgets.

Leaders of the Council and Clinical Commissioning Group have now formally signed this agreement to bring together commissioning knowledge, expertise and resource from the Council and CCG. (see photo)

The aim of the agreement between Stockport Health and Social Care providers is to make sure patients and service users get the support they need, when and where they need it, without the confusion or delay that can be caused when care passes between different organisations.

Integrated commissioning will mean less duplication and in turn that means more of the health and social care budget can be spent on delivering the services that people really need.

Stockport has an ageing population and an increase in long term conditions which require a move away from the current emphasis on hospital care to a system that supports prevention of ill health and self-care.

Jane Crombleholme, Chair of the CCG, said: “We want to help people stay well and healthy at home. Working in a joined up way means we can get rid of budget restrictions that can get in the way of this.”

Deputy Leader of Stockport Council and Executive Councillor for Adult Social Care, Wendy Wild said: “It’s good news that people are living longer in Stockport but with longer lives come more long term health conditions and an increasingly complex mix of social and health care needs. 

“The agreement of such a significant pooled budget will assist the Council and the NHS in joining up the care we provide to local people, enable more people to be cared for in their community, and will lead to improved outcomes by ensuring services meet the needs of individuals and their families.” 

HCICB to take the lead 

The Health and Care Integrated Commissioning Board (HCICB) will be the strategic body leading the work and it includes representatives from the council and CCG. There is strong clinical representation on this board in the form of two local Stockport GPs, Dr Ranjit Gill and Dr Andy Johnson. They will take joint decisions relating to how the pooled fund will be spent. 

This agreement sits alongside the arrangement signed by local health and care providers to come together as a shadow single organisation for the care of older people, ahead of the launch of a new health and care organisation in April 2017. 

The benefits of joined up care are already being seen in Stockport where integrated teams are coming together to look after some of our older people most in need of more dedicated care or support. These individuals often have a number of health and social care issues that they need help with. Small differences like getting help with managing medication or making adaptations to the home are already making big differences to people’s lives and preventing them from becoming poorly and needing to go to hospital. 

This work is integral to the Greater Manchester devolution plans under which Greater Manchester partners (including Stockport) take charge of a £6bn health and social care budget.  

In 2015, Stockport was chosen as one of 50 areas nationally to try out this new way of providing services and was named a ‘Vanguard’ site by NHS England.

Stockport Health and Social Care providers, working as Stockport Together, is an integral part of the ambitious plans set out in December by Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, the body made up of the 37 NHS organisations and councils in the city region, which is overseeing devolution and taking charge of the £6bn health and social care budget.