The Government is encouraging all Local Authorities to develop their own reforms to public services. To help support reforms it is asking for Expressions of Interest from Local Authorities to be part of a national pilot supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government – ‘Health and Social Care Integration Pioneers’.

Bristol City Council is making a bid to be a national pilot, and the Expression of Interest will be focusing on a proposal to create an integrated rehabilitation assessment and coordination function within all hospital sites.
 
Success as a pioneer will mean driving forward change at scale and pace, from which the rest of the country can benefit.  The timetable for filing the expression of interest is short, and there has been early stage feed in from Voscur, Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group and Bristol Community Health. If the expression of interest is successful then there will be opportunities for wide VCSE collaborative involvement with the plans.  Attaining Pioneer status will not necessarily result in more money for Bristol Health and Social Care, but national resources and support will be available to develop plans, and it is an opportunity for developing innovative solutions to integrated services and taking a lead as a national example of good practice and innovative development.

Voscur will update the voluntary sector on progress. If you are interested in hospital discharge, rehabilitation and assessment and believe you have something to offer, please contact sue@voscur.org.