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On 17th July 2024, the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) will formally accept undertakings agreed with NHS England.

On 17th July 2024, the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) will formally accept undertakings agreed with NHS England. More information is available in our Board papers published online.

NHS Greater Manchester is one of the largest integrated care systems in the country serving a diverse population of 2.8 million where the health inequalities can mean people living in some parts of the city-region are expected to live a decade less than in other areas.

We know we need to focus on supporting people to live happy, healthy lives by preventing illnesses where possible or identifying them early. We need to make services high quality, easy to access with shorter waiting times and fair across Greater Manchester, and we need to make sure our £7.4 billion from NHS England is spent in the right way.

To help us, we are now working more closely with NHS England to deliver a set of formalised agreed actions under one single improvement plan. This is a process referred to legally as ‘Enforcement Undertakings’ and this additional support from NHS England gives us the opportunity to deliver changes and make improvements in the care of people living in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester is proud to have a long history of partnership working throughout our health and care system and it is this legacy that has seen leaders from across GM come together to form the GM System Improvement Board and develop this improvement plan.

Our improvement plan covers four themes:

1. Leadership and governance – ensure we are doing more to lead an integrated care system across Greater Manchester.
2. Performance and assurance – ensure we have the right robust plans in place to meet our constitutional standards both now and in the long term.
3. Financial sustainability – ensure we are making the most of the money allocated to Greater Manchester to bring our finances back into balance.
4. Quality of Care – ensure we have a consistent approach to patient safety, and make improvements to access and experience of care, putting patients and their families at the heart of the improvement we make.

Mark Fisher, chief executive for NHS Greater Manchester, said: “This is a challenging time for the NHS in Greater Manchester. We know there is more to do, but we are clear we need to make changes to what we do and how we do it. This improvement plan agreed with NHS England is our opportunity to outline how we want NHS Greater Manchester to look in the future, and how we are going to work together as an integrated care system to make further and faster progress to get us there

“Our biggest asset is our health and care workforce. I am extremely proud to work alongside these committed people determined to provide the very best care, and who I know are doing everything possible to make sure we have the highest standards of health and care services in Greater Manchester. The public should feel reassured that their local NHS is there for them and continue to come forward for the care and treatment they need.”

We will also be shortly launching our public engagement exercise ‘An NHS Fit for the Future’, which will run until autumn. This programme will allow us to take the public along with us on the journey towards achieving our population health, performance and financial goals; to give our staff, stakeholders and communities the opportunity to tell us what is important to them and what we should prioritise, and to increase awareness and understanding of the challenges we face. More information on Fit for the Future and how to get involved will be available on our website soon.

What are enforcement undertakings?

  • NHS England has statutory powers set out in legislation to introduce undertakings against an integrated care board as a first step to help support performance against areas for improvements to meet national and local health targets.
  • Enforcement undertakings mean a set of agreed improvements must be delivered within a set timeframe.
  • National NHS England guidance means that if legal commitments are not delivered then further action can be taken.

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