Health Reform

Significant work has been happening across the East of England to prepare for the health reforms. Going forward, the East of England LGA is working with national LGA and Midlands and East NHS to deliver joint activities which bring together the two tiers of local government with their health and other partners to learn about the impact of the reforms, respective roles and responsibilities and to facilitate and create the opportunity for new partnerships, joint endeavours and whole system collaborations to be taken forward. This builds on work already taken forward by the partners.

Activities include:

The development of the East of England Adult Services and Health Portfolio-Holder Network

• To provide councils, through their political leadership, the opportunity to collaborate on a number of important policy areas and share learning. 

Information on the network meetings is available at http://www.eelga.gov.uk/events/networks/view-network.aspx?ID=23

Induction workshops for health portfolio holders and members with a health lead/interest.

• To develop a good understanding of the health reforms and how they impact locally ie what is changing, why and what will it mean
• To consider the role of members with the health brief and in particular in relation to GP consortia

An initial workshop was delivered in summer 2011 and further workshops are currently being planned.  If you would like to register your interest in attending one of these workshops please email hannah.shah@eelga.gov.uk.

Support to district councils through bespoke 'Getting to Know You' workshop aimed at local areas where relationships between local government and health will be fairly new.

• To develop a good local understanding of organisational roles (two tier system and how health service works and what is changing) and who is who in these organisations, clarify vehicles for keeping in touch going forward
• Build dialogue about shared priorities and whole system fit, including opportunities for place based approaches

This programme is now full.  However, we are investigating further funding opportunities to extend the programme to more areas so if you are interested please email hannah.shah@eelga.gov.uk to register your interest.

We will be publishing regular updates on the outcomes of these workshop in our news section.  Read about the pilot workshop with South Norfolk District Council here.

Regular updates on the health reform

We include regular updates relating to this agenda in our monthly newsletter.  Visit our home page to sign up.

Other useful sources of information

• The East of England Public Health and Social Care Directorate produces a regular short newsletter on public health issues, "Public Health and Wellbeing in the East". The latest edition focuses on the links between work and health and also summarises the ongoing changes to public health, and is aimed at leaders in health, local government, public services, business, and voluntary organisations across the region. The newsletter includes lots of useful information about sickness absence, ways to improve staff health and wellbeing, and mental health, and should be interesting to leaders, managers and staff in human resources.  The publication can be accessed at http://www.eoe.nhs.uk/page.php?page_id=2170

• The Joint Improvement Partnership produces a very useful monthly bulletin as part of their Clinical Commissioning Support Project.  These bulletins contain information on the progress towards implementation of the health reforms, including national and regional updates on the Health and Wellbeing Boards, progress of the Clinical Commissioning Groups and good practice examples around integration and commissioning.  This bulletin can be accessed at http://jipeast.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=49&Itemid=56