South Tyneside: Integrating Health and Social Care
In 2017 South Tyneside council, the NHS clinical commissioning group (CCG) and the local voluntary sector established the ‘South Tyneside Alliance’. Their aim was to achieve the best possible health and wellbeing outcomes for local people by integrating health and social care services and working in new ways.
The Alliance is underpinned and supported by South Tyneside’s twenty year vision, agreed in 2010 by the council and its local public sector partners.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The Alliance is providing integrated local support for:
- People with learning disabilities and their carers, overseen by a learning disabilities alliance that is profoundly changing the way the service operates
- Frail older people through community teams with district nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, community matrons and third sector staff in three localities
- People with autism and their families in a new drop in centre that offers immediate practical advice and support
- Young children and their families through four ‘best start in life’ hubs
- Children and young people with mental health issues, by employing 25 new mental health practitioners in schools
- People with long terms conditions, through integrated help to manage their conditions in the community, with an emphasis on primary care, self-care and well being.
- People with palliative care or end of life needs, and their families, through a much more streamlined support
OUTCOMES
South Tyneside is performing well against NHS national indicators. It now has some of the best waiting times in the country. Delayed transfer of care performance has improved significantly, and permanent admissions to residential homes continue to get better. The demand for accident and emergency services is: “relatively good, given it is a major issue nationally”, and non-elective hospital admissions continue to be: “pretty stable”. Managers have also noticed significant changes in staff’s language, approaches and behaviours.
KEY LEADERSHIP ACTIONS
Building mutual trust by:
- Developing strong positive open personal relationships between leaders
- Agreeing clear shared principles and values
- Continuing to deepen and extend connections with more local organisations
Agreeing shared strategies by:
- Learning from elsewhere
- Listening to local people
- Working with politicians and community leaders
- Agreeing a clear vision
- Applying the agreed principles
- Taking an organic approach
- Learning, reflecting and adapting
Delivering results by:
- Pooling budgets and commissioning jointly
- Being brave and tenacious
- Demonstrating the desired behaviours as leaders
- Developing systems leaders at all levels in the organisations
- Engaging and empowering managers and staff
- Admitting that you don’t have all the answers
- Promoting successes, attracting new staff committed to partnership working
CHALLENGES
- Responding to NHS England’s and the regulators’ requirements
- Creating an overall organisational structure, given that different services are being integrated in different ways
- Financial pressures and the need to manage reduced spending power with increased demand
