Rotherham is part of South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, a first-wave integrated care system (ICS). The places within the ICS are developing as integrated care partnerships (ICPs), and a key message from the ICS is that ‘place’ is put first.
Rotherham is also part of Sheffield City Region and works at that level for some health-related activity, such as tackling fuel poverty and supporting people into sustainable employment.
Rotherham HWB is the single strategic forum to ensure coordinated commissioning and delivery across the NHS, social care, public health and other services directly related to health and wellbeing. The HWB also sets the strategic direction for the Integrated Health and Social Care Partnership Place Board, which was set up to drive integration and deliver transformation across health and social care. The HWB has a comprehensive outcomes framework and receives quarterly performance reports on the place plan to assure progress. Partners provide constructive challenge and are keen to collaborate across organisational boundaries for the benefit of people in Rotherham.
Achievements in integration include:
- The creation of a range of joint commissioning posts and teams, which have been in place for some time. , and have paved the way to explore further joint working across the system.
- The ‘Rotherham Health Record’, an electronic system which operates across hospitals, the council and general practice and allows front-line workers to make informed decisions based on shared data.
- An integrated discharge team which has improved outcomes for patients and made substantial reductions in delayed transfers of care.
“The Rotherham Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) plays an essential role in the improvement of health outcomes for the population of Rotherham. It is a very inclusive board, including commissioners and providers, that ensures close working across all our key partners and sets the strategic direction across health and social care.”
Chris Edwards, Chief Officer, Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group
The HWB is focussed on tackling the wider determinants of health and taking an asset-based approach to working with communities. A project was set up to reduce social isolation, based around social prescribing and delivered by a partnership of local voluntary and community organisations. A key element was a grant programme to fund additional capacity in the voluntary sector. Evaluation by Sheffield Hallam University found that seven out of 10 people reported feeling less isolated, over half were more active, and there was less use of NHS services. Another pilot is being led by a multi-agency group in three wards where loneliness was identified as a particular challenge.
These projects and others are seen as providing the connections and structures that can be linked with the development of primary care networks and integrated community teams.
For more information
Councillor David Roche, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board [email protected]
or
Terri Roche, Director of Public Health
[email protected]