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CARE ACT 2014
Under the Act local authorities have a duty to carry out their care and support responsibilities with the aim of joining up services with those provided by the NHS and other health related services, for example, housing or leisure services. This includes support and prevention services for carers.
RELATED CHAPTERS
Preventing Needs for Care and Support
Market Shaping and Commissioning of Adult Care and Support
Transition to Adult Care and Support
MANCHESTER SPECIFIC INFORMATION
Manchester City Council’s Information on Health Integration
RELEVANT INFORMATION
Under the Care Act 2014, the local authority has a duty to carry out their care and support responsibilities – including carer’s support and prevention services – with the aim of joining up services with those provided by the NHS and other health related services, for example, housing or leisure services.
The duty applies where the local authority considers that integration of services would promote the wellbeing of adults with care and support needs – including carers, contribute to the prevention or delay of developing care needs, or improve the quality of care in the local authority’s area.
There is a requirement that:
This applies to all the local authority’s care and support functions for adults with needs for care and support and for carers, including:
The local authority is not solely responsible for promoting integration with the NHS, and this responsibility reflects similar duties placed on NHS England and the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to promote integration with care and support. There is also an equivalent duty on local authorities to integrate care and support provision with health related services, for example housing.
See also Manchester City Council’s Information on Health Integration.
The Devolution Agreement for Health and Social Care has given Greater Manchester control over the £6 billion health and social care resources for the region as from 1 April 2016, and provides the opportunity to fundamentally transform how health and social care are delivered in the region. In order to do this, a Locality Plan has been developed, which is the foremost strategy on the transformation of the health and care system in the city. The plan outlines three mutually interdependent pillars which underpin the transformational change required. These are:
The Manchester approach, outlined in the Locality Plan, will ensure a clear focus on place and the needs of residents and that a stronger service offer addresses health and social care needs earlier, while supporting residents to take responsibility for their own wellbeing. It will ensure that the City continues to be at the fore of clinical excellence and continue to attract world leading clinicians, and that these front line staff are professionally fulfilled in the demanding roles that they undertake.
Importantly the commissioners and providers of health and social care will come together demonstrating their commitment to integration, cooperation and partnerships to ensure duplication and fragmentation of service provision is removed, that unnecessary costs are minimised, and that the clinical leaders shape the model of delivery most suited to meet the needs of residents in Manchester, ensuring that in future they get the right care, at the right time, in the right place.
To ensure greater integration of services, the local authority are developing different mechanisms through which it can promote integration, for example:
Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies are, therefore, key means by which local authorities work with CCGs to identify and plan to meet the care and support needs of the local population, including carers.
Cooperation between partners should be a general principle for all those concerned, and all should understand the reasons why cooperation is important for those people involved. There are five aims of cooperation relevant to care and support, although the purposes of cooperation should not be limited to these matters:
The local authority must cooperate with each of its relevant partners, and the partners must also cooperate with the local authority, in relation to relevant functions. There are specific ‘relevant partners’ who have a reciprocal responsibility to cooperate. These are:
There may be other persons or bodies with whom a local authority should cooperate, in particular independent or private sector organisations for example care and support providers, NHS primary health providers, independent hospitals and private registered providers of social housing, the Care Quality Commission and regulators of health and social care professionals.
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