Have your say on closer working

Residents are invited to have their say in a consultation on proposals for closer working between health and social care partners designed to help more Derbyshire residents stay living independently at home.

Derbyshire County Council and Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust (DCHS) already work closely together to support people to remain living independently at home, helping them to get home from hospital and preventing hospital admissions.

The two organisations are now running a joint public consultation and would like to hear people’s views on proposals to join forces more formally to create a single service delivering a range of assessment and reablement services to increase the number of people they can support.

The joint public consultation runs until Thursday, 16th January 2025 and is designed to find out people’s views about the council entering into a formal partnership with DCHS by way of a Section 75 agreement, which is a legal agreement between the county council and DCHS. Should this happen, it would involve combining the budgets for assessment and reablement activities across both organisations.

The health and social care partners believe combining resources would:

• Create a more seamless service.
• Avoid duplication of effort, increasing efficiency.
• Reduce the organisational barriers caused by running two separate services.

The potential benefits of working together on a more formal basis came out of a recent public consultation into remodelling the county council’s in-house care services for older people.

Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for adult care Councillor Natalie Hoy said: “We have an excellent working relationship with our colleagues in health, who we work with closely to support Derbyshire residents to live independently at home for as long as they can, which is what people tell us they want.

“The proposals we’re consulting on are about continuing this good work in a more formal way, to bring benefits for residents across Derbyshire.”

The proposals include potential for the teams to join together under a single employer.

Dean Wallace, chief operating officer for Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our trust board has agreed to go ahead with seeking views more widely about integrating our reablement and rehabilitation services with the county council.

"We’d invite anyone to comment on the idea of bringing together NHS and social care teams involved in supporting Derbyshire patients to maintain their independence for as long as possible. It’s a way of working which is already established for other services but we want to hear from anyone with views about these specific proposals to establish a new formal partnership arrangement.”

The proposal is designed to enable both organisations to manage increasing demand for services into the future, helping ensure people avoid being admitted to hospital when it’s not necessary or they don’t stay in hospital longer than they need to and have a better chance of returning home after a hospital stay.

Councillor Natalie Hoy added: “By joining forces we could work more effectively and help even more people live the life they want, in their communities. I’d encourage everyone to take part in the consultation and give us their views.”

To find out more and fill in the online questionnaire visit Further integration between health and social care.