Policy layers delay funding of innovative care deal for elderly people, conference hears

Devolution of health and social care spending to Manchester—known as “Devo Manc”—has created a new obstacle to creating new care models, a seminar in London heard on 10 February.

Terry Dafter, director of adult social care in Stockport, Greater Manchester, described how social care, community health services, and primary care were being combined under pooled funding from the borough council and the Stockport clinical commissioning group. The care model being developed is a multispecialty community provider (MCP), as described in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.

Dafter told a Westminster Health Forum on mental health services that getting all services to agree to the plan was tortuous. “You have to be dogged, and it’s hard going,” he said. “But the final outcome is worth it.”

The arrival of Devo Manc, another policy backed by NHS …