Agenda item

Presentation on the joint NHS confederation and LGA project- ‘All Together Now’.

Councillor David Sparks OBE welcomed Rob Webster to address Councillors’ Forum on developing the health and future care system of the future.

Rob Webster provided a background to NHS Confederation, the membership body for all organisations that commission and provide NHS services. The Confederation supports the efforts of local organisations on the ground, and new ideas developed there with an aim of bringing the best thinking and practice from the local level to the more ‘fragmented’ national level.

The process by which this is happening is through publications such as ‘All Together Now’; a joint piece of work with the LGA - setting out a vision for integration and shared services, and the 2015 Challenge; A report that brings together partners from across the whole health and care system to help achieve consensus on challenges facing the service, to develop a vision for the future and to create the necessary conditions for change.

Despite pressures on the system, the sector should see the current situation as an opportunity. Fear and negativity is not the way to progress, instead a ‘burning ambition’ is the way to create a fundamentally better service. ‘Place’ was identified as being central to the future vision and councils will be key in supporting a new joined up and coordinated service.

Among the asks being made of the national system by the Confederation is;

·         An end to the health and care system being used for narrow political ends.

·         Leave to local discretion how certain services are delivered.

·         Longer term financial settlements.

Rob Webster concluded by reiterating the need to have a future vision for the system and the opportunity to lobby central government in the run up to the 2015 election and that through the LGA, councillors can lever the asks that the Confederation will make of the government in the run-up to the election.

Members discussed:

·         Workforce and culture issues in health and social care.

·         Regional disparities in health funding.

·         The role and funding of Public Health England.