Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Devolution –
FAQs
What is Devolution?
The main aim of devolution is to make Greater Manchester a better place to live by improving the lives of residents by making them healthier, wealthier and happier.
To achieve this, local decision making organisations are being given increased freedoms and flexibilities to tailor budget and priorities to their own region’s needs. A groundbreaking deal with the Government was signed in February 2015 and means that councils and NHS in Greater Manchester will have direct control of, or influence over, the entire budget currently spent on our 2.8m people of which £6 billion is spent on the NHS and social care
The health and social care agreement or Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA - consisting of the ten local authorities, police and fire service), Government, NHS England and Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). All other NHS bodies in Greater Manchester have also given their formal commitment to this.The MoU covers: acute care, primary care, community services, mental health services, social care and public health.
What does this mean for Greater Manchester?
We will move from the authorities loosely working together on specific projectsto formally collaborating to integrate and co-ordinate services in new ways to tackle some of the major challenges we face. It will be easier to respond to what local people want by using their experience and expertise to help change the way we spend the money.
We want to improve the health and wellbeing of all of the residents of Greater Manchester from early age to their later years and recognise that this will only be achieved with a focus on the prevention of ill health and the promotion of wellbeing. We will aim to move from having some of the worst health outcomes to quickly having some of the best as well as closing the health inequalities gap within GM and between GM and the rest of the UK.
Is Greater Manchester getting a directly-elected Mayor?
As part of the wider devolution agreement Greater Manchester will, in 2017, have a directly-elected mayor, who will become a member of the GMCA. He or she will be responsible for transport, planning and housing, as well as the role currently carried out by the Police and Crime Commissioner. However, the mayoral function will not include control of the health and social care budgets – this will remain with the GMCA for social care and GM Health bodies for health care as it does now.
Will Greater Manchester still be part of the NHS?
Greater Manchester will remain within the NHS and social care system and will be therefore still be responsible for keeping people safe and delivering the NHS Mandate and Constitution to all our residents. Formal consultation will continue to be a legal duty when the NHS considers changes to services and clinicians will continue to be at the forefront of decisions about health. However, there will be no requirements for NHS reorganisation.
Timeline of key Devolution events
March 2015 - A Programme Board to oversee the transition to full health and social care devolution met for the first time.
April 2015 - Arrangements began to form two shadow bodies:
A Health and Social Care Strategic Partnership Body to oversee strategic development
A Joint Commissioning Body to agree decisions on Greater Manchester-wide spending.
June 2015 – Seven day access to primary care - Launch of the commitment that all 2.8 million people across GM will have access to primary care services seven days a week from the end of 2015.
July 2015 – Healthier Together Decision–A final decision, following a three year process, about which hospitals will work together as single services and which of those will specialise in emergency medicine and general surgery.
July 2015 - Public Health MoU - Launch of a new model of public health leadership in GM, putting public health at the heart of wider economic and skills potential by helping people into work, encouraging independence and reducing demand on the NHS.
July 2015 – Spending Review - Commitment in July 2015 budget to align the Spending Review process for health and social care to our Strategic Sustainability Plan.
September 2015 – Health Innovation Manchester–Bringing together world class experts in health, academia and industry to enable GM to compete on a global level through aligning Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC), Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network (GMAHSN) and Local Clinical Research Network (LCRN)
October 2015 - Shadow arrangements will be in place and start for governance and accountability,
November 2015 - An announcement will be made on improvements to mental health following the ‘Working Well Pilot’ and how it supports unemployed residents who have a mental health-related barrier affecting their return to work.
December 2015 - Workforce Pilot - A secure agreement across provider organisations in GM on common standards on pre-employment checks, statutory and mandatory training and common rates for specific targeted locum and agency staff.
December 2015 - In preparation for devolution, Greater Manchester and NHS England will have approved the details of the devolution of funds and governance arrangements. Local authorities and CCGs will formally agree the integrated health and social care arrangements. We will also produce and agree a Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Strategic Sustainability Plan.
April 2016 - We will have full devolution and/or delegation with final governance arrangements in place.
September 2015