Plymouth awarded £1.44m to improve adult health and social care services
Plymouth City Council, in a co-operative agreement with NHS NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Plymouth Community Healthcare (CIC) have been awarded £1.44 million to help join up adult health and social care services across Plymouth.
Bringing health and social care services together will mean that more people can be supported to live independently at home, unnecessary admissions to hospital can be avoided and people will be given greater choice over the care they receive.
Councillor Ian Tuffin, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care for Plymouth City Council, said: “We are delighted that our bid for funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government towards health and social care integration in Plymouth has been successful.
“This is a very welcome grant that recognises the drive and determination within Plymouth to do things better together in the interests of providing more seamless integrated care to our service users/patients in the City.”
With Plymouth’s current population of 260,000 expected to increase by 2.4 per cent by 2017, it is estimated that those aged 65 and over will increase to 46,700 by 2016, or by 4.7 per cent.
This ageing population will undoubtedly have a greater complexity of needs and long term conditions that will require health and social care services to work in a completely different way.
Many users of the current adult health and social care services report that it feels like they ‘fall through the gaps’, with care feeling disjointed and supported by complicated systems that are not easy to navigate through.
Securing the £1.44 million will now make it easier to improve this for people and the care they receive.
The bid was submitted to the Department of Community and Local Government Transformation Challenge Award 2015-16.
Councillor Jon Taylor, Cabinet member transformation, said: “This is really exciting news for Plymouth and will really help transform health and social care services for people in this city.
“It’s ambitious, we know that, but all of the organisations involved are focused and committed. I personally have not seen this level of ambition anywhere else.
“I believe we have a real opportunity to change services for people and deliver better experiences. People don’t want to keep telling their story over and over again to different services or organisations.
“The aim of this is to ensure we deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right place.”
Dr Paul Hardy, a GP from Plymouth and chair of the Western Locality of Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, said:
“We have been working really hard with colleagues on ambitious plans for integration that will deliver benefits for people in and around Plymouth.
“This funding will ensure that, despite the pressures on our budgets, we have the money we need to make the changes that we have all agreed. I am delighted that we are able to show a real commitment to the community in Plymouth who do need us to collectively deliver more for the money we get.”
