Devolving Health and Social Care: Learning from Greater Manchester

In February 2015, Greater Manchester secured an agreement with the government to take what was described as “devolved control” of the £6 billion pa budget for health and social care for the 2.8 million people of the city-region. The aim was to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities both within Greater Manchester and between Greater Manchester and other areas of England, and to address a growing gap between need and demand for health and social care and available resources to provide them.

A new Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership was established, bringing together NHS organisations, local authorities and other stakeholders in health and social care in the city-region. These changes have taken place in the context of a wider devolution deal for Greater Manchester, and a growing interest nationally in devolution and regional governance in England.

There has been a great deal of interest in health and social care devolution in Greater Manchester, and what others could learn from this experiment. A report by academics at Alliance Manchester Business School - Devolving health and social care: Learning from Greater Manchester- released today, presents findings from research commissioned and funded by The Health Foundation and the NIHR CLAHRC for Greater Manchester, which set out to understand how health and social care devolution policy developed, what changes it brought to governance, accountability and organisational arrangements, and how changes to health and care services for people were planned and implemented.