In One Place
Mark Gardner and Neil Howell explain how collaborative working between health, social care and housing became a reality in Gwent
A JOINT HEALTH, social care and housing conference held in November 2011 was a seminal moment as far as the collaboration agenda in Gwent was concerned.
The then minister for health, Lesley Griffiths, and the then minister for housing, Huw Lewis, set down a challenge summed up as ‘stop just talking about working together, and actually do something about it!’
Fortunately, the Aneurin Bevan Health Board (ABHB), five local authorities and the nine housing associations that develop new homes in the ABHB region were up for meeting that challenge.
In the early part of 2012, the board of ABHB committed to strategically engaging with housing organisations to establish a move to developing long term, sustainable programmes of work rather than focussing upon one-off projects.
The first meeting of the ABHB Health, Social Care and Housing Forum, chaired by ABHB’s chief executive, Andrew Goodall, took place in May 2012 with the first priority topic identified as meeting the accommodation needs of those with a Continuing Health Care designation.
Continuing Health Care (CHC) is the name given to a package of services which is arranged and funded by the NHS for those
people who have been assessed as having a primary health need (assessed by its nature; intensity; complexity and unpredictability). CHC can be received in any setting including a person’s own home or in a care home.
The Task and Finish Group set up to review the accommodation needs of those designated in need of CHC were able to establish:
• Welsh Government was encouraging collaboration within its policy initiatives such as ‘Together for Health’; the new Social Services Bill; and the new Housing Bill There were clear social, economic, environmental and planning benefits of collaboration
• There was a need for high quality, local, affordable accommodation and care provision, with many of those designated CHC being placed ‘out of region’
• The cost of current provision is very high with an average annual cost of £200,000 per person per year There are over 54,000 units of accommodation owned and managed by housing associations and councils in the ABHB region
• The South East Wales Improvement Collaboration (SEWIC) was already in place and sourcing care and support packages for the local authorities in the ABHB region
The big question then – what was stopping us from collaborating in Gwent? And so the ‘In One Place’ concept was born, a place where:
• Health, social care and housing colleagues strategically plan and co- ordinate the provision of high quality
accommodation and care
• Local, affordable accommodation solutions are delivered in an environment of ‘open book’ costing with those to be housed (and their families/carers) fully engaged in the process
• Benefits in service quality and satisfaction, in addition to cost are measured
• Future accommodation needs are planned and delivered collaboratively ‘In One Place’.
With the support of the Welsh Government’s Regional Collaboration Fund (RCF), In One Place is becoming a reality.
All of the partners have agreed to sign up to a common collaboration agreement, a staff team dedicated to making the agreement work are being appointed and, most importantly, those in urgent need of accommodation will be supported into local, high quality housing solutions.
This is a turning point for public service collaboration. It’s something Welsh Government expect and support; that the Williams Commission is likely to promote; and something, frankly that’s long overdue.
The partners have a joint responsibility to make this work – and we will – In One Place.
Mark Gardner is chief executive of Melin Homes
Neil Howell is head of housing at Torfaen County Borough Council and chair of HLC