Why collaborate?
- We are facing some very significant challenges. These include widening health inequalities, rising demand, pressure on quality and safety, staffing shortages, the wellbeing of our colleagues, and funding.
- We must address these challenges with urgency.
- We have seen that joining forces as equal partners can have huge benefits. Collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated what we can do together at scale to support our colleagues and patient care.
- Examples of collaboration in action can be found here.
- We have a great opportunity to build on this to make sure we support better health and care across the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
- By working collaboratively, we will be much more likely to achieve our vision than if we work alone. This is because we will be able to better:
o agree joint priorities and how to best join forces to deliver them
o learn from and support each other
o share skills and best practice
o pool resources to support fragile services
o provide flexible career paths across organisational boundaries
o standardise our approach across Lancashire and South Cumbria to reduce variation and duplication
o support the local economy and the environment to add social value.
National context: enabler for working better together
- The Health and Care Act 2022 describes a ‘duty to collaborate’ which applies to all NHS organisations and local authorities. This is really helpful as it means it will be easier to progress with our plans.
- Since July 2022 trusts providing acute and / or mental health / community services have been expected to be part of one or more provider collaborative(s).
- This means that our Provider Collaborative Board is an increasingly important vehicle to help us deliver our ambitions.