Historic move transforms Salford’s health and social care landscape
THE HEALTH and social care system in Salford will tomorrow (1 July) be transformed with the introduction of a ‘pioneering’ new organisation which joins up adult social services and health care across the city.
The new Integrated Care Organisation – or ICO – led by Salford Royal, comes into existence today following four years work by NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Salford Royal, Salford City Council and Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.
In a ground-breaking move, nearly 450 adult social care staff will transfer from Salford City Council to the ICO, which will be delivered by Salford Royal in the role of ‘prime provider’ for all adult health and social care services. The ICO will also receive the commission for mental health services and will have responsibility for domiciliary and nursing home care.
Ultimately, the ICO will cover more than 2,000 staff across adult community, mental and acute health and social care services with a budget of £213m.
Delivered with vanguard funding from the new care models programme, its primary aim is to improve services to people but it is also anticipated it will deliver around £27m of recurrent savings by 2021, through reducing hospital admissions and eliminating duplications across the health and social care system.
Councillor Tracy Kelly, Salford City Council lead member for adult services, health and wellbeing, said: “We are one of the first councils in the country to completely join-up all our adult social care services with NHS health services and create a new organisation to deliver them.
“It has taken years of careful work and strong partnership links – including a successful Integrated Care Programme for 65 year olds and older – to set up this new integrated care organisation which will be led by Salford Royal.
“It’s a bold, brave move but one which I believe will deliver better and more personalised services for our residents and, in the face of reduced resources and increasing demand, it will protect and enhance the fantastic services and staff we have developed over many years.
“We’ve done this because we all – the city council and the NHS – want the best for people in Salford.”
Dr Hamish Stedman, chair of Salford CCG, said: “Over time, the ICO will completely change and transform the relationship that the NHS and adult social care has with patients, people and communities.
“We will work together with local people to try to ‘nip potential illness in the bud’. But if illness does occur, we will join up care in, or near, people’s homes and make sure it is of the same high standard right across Salford. Co-ordinated, consistent, kind and high-quality care delivered across the city.
“Just one example of this is our Multi-Disciplinary Groups – or MDGs – which work across Salford with those people 65 and older.
“These are teams of professionals made up of GPs, nurses, mental health workers, practice staff and social workers.
“Here, we have these professionals meeting together to plan the care and needs of individual people aged 65 or over. Sometimes in the past this was disjointed, people often having to repeat their story over and over again to those sharing in their care.”
Dr Stedman added: “Soon, those adults in Salford who have been identified as requiring specific support will be discussed at MDGs. They will be given named care co-ordinator who will make sure that their patient is seen by the right person, at the right time, in the right place.”
“This move to integrate adult health and social work will join the dots for patients and help deliver safe, consistent and co-ordinated care.”
Sir David Dalton, chief executive at Salford Royal, said: “The launch of the ICO marks the beginning of a pioneering transformation of health and social care across the city of Salford.
“By pooling expertise, skills and knowledge, the care we provide will be even more patient-focussed and joined up so we can help reduce the need for hospital admissions and also reduce the length of a hospital stay.
“This new and improved way of working will give patients the appropriate support they need to effectively self-manage their own care in the comfort of their own home.
“The closer relationships we will have with colleagues working in adult social care and mental health services will improve communication and decision-making, providing patients and service users with more co-ordinated care and ultimately, better outcomes.”
As part of the new ICO, Salford Royal will hold the contract for Salford adult and older person’s mental health services – presently held by Salford CCG – and will sub-contract it to the current provider, Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMW).
GMW’s deputy chief executive, Neil Thwaite said: “This shared vision to improve the care of Salford residents will offer targeted support for people with long-term mental health conditions to help them keep their independence for as long as possible.
“By combining our expertise in this way, we can provide more co-ordinated mental health care, helping people to access the right care at the right time. It will enable us to create more personalised services for residents and work together more efficiently to provide care closer to home.”
The ICO will complement the work being carried regionally by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership and Salford’s locality plan has been developed with the ICO in mind.
More integration is expected with the re-design of the way GPs currently work across the city.
Miranda Carter, director of Foundation Trust assessment and new organisational models at NHS Improvement, said: “We’re very pleased to have been able to support the development of this innovative model, an approach to integration which we believe has the potential to vastly improve health outcomes for the population of Salford.
“We have now risk rated the ICO meaning plans can move forward with confidence toward the delivery of integrated health and social care services that will improve the lives of local people.”
Lord Peter Smith, Chair of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership Board, said: “Integrated Care Organisations are an exciting new development for health and social care services in Greater Manchester. Their development will allow local leaders and clinicians to design services that directly meet the needs of local communities in a way that has never been possible before.
“I am delighted with the progress being made in Salford and look forward to witnessing the next exciting steps for this important initiative.”
