Start of a new health and care era for Bury people

A new organisation has been launched which aims to transform health and care services for people in the borough.

The Bury Local Care Organisation (Bury LCO) was launched on 1 April, 2019 and has the aim of supporting improvements in population health and wellbeing, providing improved health and care to the people of Bury.

The formal alliance of organisations includes Bury Council, Bury GP Federation, BARDOC, Bury Voluntary, Community and Faith Alliance, Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (Salford Royal and Pennine Acute Hospital NHS Trusts), Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust and Persona Care and Support Ltd.

These organisations have made a commitment to work together as a single innovative new body within the public sector, responsible for the transformation and delivery of a group of services. They will work as one joined-up team rather than separate organisations, leading to more coordinated help and support, getting the best value for public money.

The Bury LCO will be responsible for the majority of health and care services provided outside hospital, with a team of approximately 600 staff, with an operating budget of £27m, working across the borough, including district nurses, social workers, health workers and therapists.

A key aim of the group is to focus health and care services in the home and the community, with hospital or care homes only being used for those whose needs cannot be met elsewhere.

There is also a big focus on tailoring services for different areas of Bury which have different levels and types of demands, as well as encouraging people to have healthy lifestyles. For example, Prestwich has a high proportion of older people and so we will be carrying out more strength and balance training here to help reduce the number of injuries caused by falls.

The borough has been divided into five areas to help bring services closer to communities and will be carried out by ‘integrated neighbourhood teams’, which are teams of health, social care and Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (VCFS) professionals, who will work closely together to deliver more joined-up care support.

Kath Wynne-Jones, chief officer of Bury LCO, said: “The launch of Bury LCO marks the start of a new era for health and care services in the borough. We want to enable our workforce and our population to be the best they can be. We want to remove barriers for staff that cause duplication, stress and uncoordinated care.

“This is a completely new way of delivering help and support for our people and each partner organisation is determined to make a difference and improve services.”

Greater Manchester is leading the way nationally with this new health and care partnership approach, which follows the historic devolution deal between the city region and central government, and allows the area to take charge of its £6 billion health and social care budget, tailoring services for the people they serve.

Each borough has produced a plan on how to do this – called a Locality Plan - and Bury LCO will contribute to implementing Bury’s plan. Bury is investing £19.2 million from devolution’s Greater Manchester Transformation Fund in order to create services fit for the 21^st century.

Geoff Little, chief executive of Bury Council and accountable officer for Bury One Commissioning Organisation, said: “Bury LCO has a fantastic opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives.

“We now have all the professionals we need to deliver health and care services working together in one organisation, following one over-arching vision and plan.”

ENDS

Press release issued: 2 April 2019.

Picture:Representatives from the alliance of partner organisations put pen to paper in Bury Town Hall’s council chamber, marking the launch of the Bury Local Care Organisation.

Note to editors:

Please see below for details on each Bury LCO partner organisation:

BARDOC Ltd

Providing out of hours medical and dental care to the local communities of Bury, Heywood, Middleton, Rochdale and Bolton.

BARDOC’s vision is to achieve excellence in all that it does, through delivering high quality integrated care by working with other health and social care agencies which best meets the needs of patients and commissioners and delivers value for money.

Bury GP Federation

Bury GP Federation was created to enhance the delivery of health and care services to the local population. It now has 25 of the town’s 26 general practices in membership and covers 97% of the 205,000 people of Bury. It believes community-based services which are high quality, consistent and joined up are the solution to many of the pressures on today’s NHS and that general practice is ideally placed to lead this community based provision.

Bury Council

Bury Council is one of 10 metropolitan local authorities in Greater Manchester, serving approximately 187,500 people. The borough comprises six towns: Bury, Radcliffe, Whitefield, Prestwich, Ramsbottom and Tottington.

Bury Voluntary, Community and Faith Alliance

The Bury Voluntary, Community and Faith Alliance (VCFA) is an infrastructure organisation providing volunteering and development support to the VCF (also known as VCS) in Bury, enhancing their ability to support local communities. VCFA also promotes the VCS sector and advocates on their behalf at a strategic level with other stakeholders.

Northern Care Alliance NHS Group

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Group (NCA) brings together five hospitals, specialist and acute services, a range of associated community services, and over 17,500 staff across Salford Royal and Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trusts under a Group arrangement. The NCA serves a population of over 1.1m people across Salford, Oldham, Bury, Rochdale and North Manchester, Services for Bury including Fairfield General Hospital are provided through its Bury & Rochdale Care Organisation. More information can be found at www.northerncarealliance.nhs.uk

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

Runs mental health, learning disability and community services across six boroughs of Greater Manchester – including Bury. Find out more at www.penninecare.nhs.uk

Persona Care and Support Ltd

Persona Care and Support Ltd is a local authority trading company set up in 2015 to operate services previously provided by Bury Council.

Persona provides high quality Adult Social Care services for young people with additional needs, people with learning disabilities, people with physical disabilities, older people, people living with dementia, people with autism, and carers.

Persona focuses on three key service areas: days, stays and lives.

• Health and care transformation in Bury is also being led by the recently-formed Bury One Commissioning Organisation, which is the joining up of Council and CCG services which plan, agree and ensure providers deliver effective health and wellbeing services for Bury. This involves teams from both the Council and CCG working together as one team on a shared vision and strategic plan for Bury.

• For more information about how devolution in Greater Manchester is helping to improve health and care services for people, go to http://www.gmhsc.org.uk/