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REPORT OF THE
Social Services North West and ADSS North West Joint Conference
SOCIAL CARE AND THE NHS PLAN
equal partnership in serving people and communities
Thursday 18 January 2001
MODERNISING SOCIAL SERVICES AND HEALTH -
SIX MONTHS ON FROM THE NHS PLAN
Professor Gerald Wistow
Director, Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds
Gerald Wistow began by reviewing his paper The Modernised Social Services - NHS Handmaidens or Partners in Citizenship, prepared for ADSS in August 2000. He reviewed the key elements of public sector modernisation, with particular reference to local government and the NHS, comparing these with certain trends in public health policy which had a different emphasis. He examined the expectations of social care services set out in the NHS Plan, but asserted the wider role of social services in empowering vulnerable people, mobilising community resources, and promoting holistic governance to meet the holistic needs of individuals in their communities.
He then reviewed developments during the last six months, including the unification of the NHS and social care within DH, the Modernisation Board and Implementation Plan, and the Health and Social Care Bill. In the wider sphere of community leadership could be found community strategies, neighbourhood management and the NHS scrutiny role. He identified events still to come and issues still to play for. A review of current opportunities and threats led to two possible alternative scenarios for health leadership in the future, and some strong conclusions: prevention is better than cure; structures should support pre-identified processes and not vice-versa; and localised engagement and control are elements of healthy living.
Click here for a full report on Gerald Wistow's presentation
IMPLEMENTING THE NHS PLAN IN THE NORTH WEST
Peter Rowe, Director of Primary and Community Care,
North West Regional Office, NHS Executive
Peter Rowe explained that he would address his subject under four main headings: the vision; structural changes; the modernisation architecture; and targets for 2001. The three key elements of the vision were: accessible services, quality assured and accountable, and integrated. The structural changes would involve many fewer health authorities, the end of PCT's community trusts and CHCs, and the development of Primary Care Trusts and Care Trusts.
Peter described the architecture of modernisation and the targets to which it was dedicated. He concluded that there was a massive change agenda and the pace is accelerating. He and his colleagues are genuine about partnership - but know we must do better!
Click here for a full report on Peter Rowe's presentation
MENTAL HEALTH: NEW PLANS AND NEW PARTNERSHIPS
Peter Clarke, Director of the North West Mental Health Development Centre,
and colleagues Helen Lasham and Lily Reid
Peter Clarke opened the presentation by saying that it would be about a challenge to the system: above all, mental health services have to be about outcomes for people. He looked at changing concepts of mental health and mental illness: the large institutions have closed, but illness is still seen outside the context of living life; there are still piecemeal responses to needs, and there is still an emphasis on service outcomes, not life outcomes. New plans and partnerships are needed to deliver outcomes in the life experience of individuals and communities, to sustain citizenship and secure inclusion.
Peter's remarks were powerfully reinforced by the personal experiences of Helen Lasham, who had used mental
health services, and Lily Reid whose son has a serious enduring mental illness. Peter then asked how we could move
from the old divisions and achieve vision, leadership, strategy and connection
How do you enable your local system to work to achieve outcomes, deliver best value and maintain standards, with
people and their life context at the centre? That is the challenge to the mental health system, to achieve better
outcomes at the levels of the individual, the neighbourhood, the authority and the region.
Click here for a full report on Peter Clarke's presentation
INVESTING FOR BETTER HEALTH
Kath Reade, Chair of East Lancashire Health Authority
and a member of the North West Development Agency.
Kath Reade spoke of multi-agency, multi-sector partnerships across the region, which is how we need to operate if we want to make a real difference. The North West Strategy pledges to integrate three cross-cutting issues: social inclusion, health and sustainable development. This is based on the WHO Verona Challenge, which sees a triangular interdependent relationship between economic, social and health development. Healthy people are more productive, make fewer demands on the health and social care sysytems, and have more opportunities to participate in social and economic life.
Kath went on to describe a number of initiatives she is involved in, both regionally and sub-regionally, to take forward this vision. She also spoke from her own past experience of how working with people to improve provision in communities can transform their lives. She ended with a powerful call to us all to play our part in challenging the causes of poverty, injustice and inequality, and improving health across the North West
Click here to read the full text of Kath Reade's speech
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