Category — Matthew's blog

David Cameron’s statement supports last 2 years work to integrate health and care services in Staffordshire…

I have written before about the work we’ve been doing over the last couple of years to improve the healthcare system across Staffordshire as well as the fact it hasn’t got the recognition that it should have done nationally.

That’s probably because it’s been overshadowed by the historical, and tragic, issues at Stafford Hospital. And whilst there’s still a long way to go, a significant milestone has been reached with the formation of the new joint health and social care organisation.

As I say there are many even more complex things we need to do to improve the way the whole healthcare system serves the public and that will take several years to do properly even though we are more advanced than most in Staffordshire.

But the formation of the new organisation and the fundamental changes to the way health and social care professionals will now work as single, rather than different, teams is exactly what the Prime Minister is calling for.

So we are well placed for step change health and care services improvement in Staffordshire during the coming months and years and also prepared to help other areas across the UK to start that journey through the work we’ve already done and our experience.

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I’m having ’round table’ discussions with Chief Execs of major care providers and supported living organisations

They will take place in mid January and I am pleased that every company, organisation and provider I’ve asked to meet with me has agreed.

One meeting will be with domiciliary care providers and a further one with organisations that invest in, and build, supported living developments for older people or those who need some support on a daily basis.

Fundamental to the meetings is the quality of services provided in the future and the sustainability of our ambitious building programme for supported or sheltered living schemes in the current economic climate.

The latter is because of signs of a slow down in the ability of developers to raise money and make schemes viable with a minimal subsidy from the County Council. I want to look at new ways of doing it which could include a new approach to contracting the care element in future.

It’s also about examining whether the County Council could assist with pump priming new developments through the use of capital where banks aren’t able to. The last couple of years we’ve driven a big increase in Staffordshire of developments to help people remain independent in safe surroundings even with some vulnerabilities and health challenges.

In fact, Staffordshire was named as leading nationally in meeting the needs of the future in a recent Parliamentary Report and I don’t intend to see progress stall which means early intervention may be needed.

Care wise, it’s about sustainability of the provider sector with rising cost of fuel and other factors, quality of  care given to individuals in their homes and enhancing the profession of Home Care as a career rather than just as a job. It’s also understanding in more detail whether providers are passing on some specific incentives to their staff as expected or adding them to profits… as some clearly are.

But for Care, the bottom line for me is quality of services and that’s where the focus will continue to be. Over the last two years we’ve contrated much, much harder to ensure people receiving care are put before company profits and some that have failed to understand that have faced ultimate consequences.

Tough but fair. And that’s why before we formalise a completely new way of paying providers, residential and non residential, across the care sector in Staffordshire by the quality of care and results, rather than simply the task, we need to understand the impact that could have on those who can’t raise their standards sufficiently.

So, it should be useful and interesting but one thing that will continue is the drive to raise standards and professionalism in care ever further.

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We inherited contracts for new £40million offices signed by County Labour just weeks before they lost the election

That was back in June 2009 and as a brand new Administration it was a real shock to be saddled with such a large and unexpected commitment.

Despite the surprise the principle was ok’ish but like so many things we found the deal wasn’t put together as well as it could have been and certainly didn’t appear to be what could be called a hard bargain.

We perhaps could have gone to court to try to escape the deal but we judged there was a chance to improve it, provide some badly needed economic development and also local employment. And with a large scale infrastructure development programme planned we thought it would be bad reputationally with the very sector we were looking to stimulate.

So we pressed on, renegotiated the contracts, improved the efficiency of the two new buildings and reduced the cost over the 40 year term considerably. The new offices are now in use and 17 other buildings in the centre of Stafford have been vacated for disposal or surrender of leases.

The new buildings are also amongst the most efficient energy wise in the UK having their own biomass energy generation using fuel from land owned by County at Cannock Chase.

The total cost to the Staffordshire tax payer of accommodation in central Stafford is more than £250k less each year meaning a total term saving of about £12million.

Not too bad, bearing in mind the deal Labour left us would have cost the public purse half a million a year more for the two new office blocks than the original seventeen… so their property deal would have been £32million more expensive over the term than we’ve managed to settle on.

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It will be the biggest improvement to front line community healthcare in a generation for Staffordshire people…

A big statement but unusually it’s a decision which is virtually impossible to over egg… even for a politician!

This is one of the biggest decisions ever taken by the County Council not only because of the transformation in healthcare service quality but also because it will involve £1.5billion from the County Council of public money. My Report to Cabinet colleagues yesterday was over 240 pages and the culmination of nearly two years work including numerous appearances by me before County Committees to be questioned on the plans.

We started planning for this shortly after coming to power in late 2009 and it involves bringing Staffordshire’s main three NHS organisations and County Council Social Services into one new public body.

Social Care services, currently run by the County Council, support all sorts of
people such as the elderly and those with mental health challenges, learning disabilities or physical disabilities. It is all about providing help for people to maintain, or regain, their independence and enjoy as normal a life as their circumstances can allow.

Very often that help is delivered in community settings such as an individual’s home or supported living places. It can also mean the difference between recovering from injury or trauma safely at home or ending up in hospital when there’s no real need to… it’s also discharge from hospital, when clinically well enough, and getting back home with support more quickly.

Clinical community health services, such as district nursing, physiotherapy and anything which is ‘medical’ in nature also support independent living and are provided to individuals by the NHS separately to the County Council. 

But as individuals often need joint support from both Social Care and the NHS, and because they are currently delivered by different bodies across Staffordshire, things don’t join up too well. It’s a problem right across the UK.

No matter how hard the professionals try  to coordinate visits and treatment the experience of patients is fragmented and the technical support systems don’t work properly together. And it was those problems that quickly became apparent in 2009 and led us to launch ambitious, and huge, plans to join things up.  

As I wrote earlier, those plans were formally agreed by the County Cabinet yesterday. It ratified agreement last week by Staffordshire’s NHS meaning, that after due diligence with Government nationally, the operational strategy to make it happen in reality can start in earnest. 

The establishment of the UK’s largest ever combined health and social care provider will also provide a crucial lever for improvements to the way the wider healthcare system in Staffordshire works collaboratively for the benefit of patients. 

What we agreed yesterday is huge but the transformation of the wider system is even bigger and more complex still. You can view the follow on questions and discussion after my report here. The extra starts at 1hr 45mins 26 secs on the webcast.

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