Joining up health and care services

Our local health and care system must adapt to meet  rising demand for services as a result of people living longer and with more complex conditions.

We need to break down the barriers between our different health and care organisations and make sure they provide a more joined up and better coordinated service for people.  So in common with many other parts of the country, we are looking at how we can work with our partner organisations to bring all our resources together to provide the best quality care and health outcomes for our local population.

Click on the tabs above to learn more about the different ways we are forming partnerships to better meet the needs of our local population now and in the future. There is also more information available on the NHS England website here.

This infographic explains some of the reasons why the NHS needs to change so it is more joined-up, proactive and empowering:

We are building on several years of successful collaboration with Bath and North East Somerset Council to plan, commission (buy) and deliver local health and care services together. During 2018/19 we are making changes to our governance processes and team structures that will enable us to work together in a more integrated way that is still consistent with each organisation’s separate statutory duties. This will mean pooling more of our local health and care budget and planning and delivering services that are better coordinated  to meet the needs of local people.

There are a number of factors that impact on our health and wellbeing, besides access to and quality of NHS and social care services.  Housing, transport and education, for example, all play a part in determining how healthy we are. The integration of health and care services will help our commissioners to work more closely with other Council departments. A new Health and Care Board has been formed to take decisions informed by the collective experience of GPs, local Councillors and senior offices from both organisations. The Board is currently meeting in shadow form but will start holding meetings in public in early 2019.

Useful link:

Integrated commissioning for better outcomes a commissioning framework from the Local Government Association and NHS Clinical Commissioners.

All health and social care organisations across Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES), Swindon and Wiltshire are working together as a sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) to improve our local population’s health and wellbeing, improve service quality and deliver financial stability.

Tracey Cox, interim Senior Responsible Officer for BSW STP said: “We have a number of key priorities, in particular the transformation of services to ensure the well-being of older people, the transformation of mental health provision and a sound financial plan to ensure we can deliver savings whilst sustaining services.”

During 2018/19 we are exploring how we can work more closely with Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Groups to commission services ‘at scale.’  More information about these plans are available in our Board papers here.

For more information about our STP, visit www.bswstp.nhs.uk

Senior leaders from local health and care organisations in Bath and North East Somerset Council are now working closer together to take collective responsibility for managing the local health and care budget and making quality improvements to local services.   Alongside the CCG, members of the Alliance Board include representatives from:

• Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
• B&NES Council
• The Royal United Hospitals NHS Trust
• Virgin Care
• Healthwatch and representatives from primary care (GP staff) and the voluntary sector.