Member Article

Northern Powerhouse: £6 billion NHS budget to be devolved to Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester will become the first English region to get complete control of its health budget as part of the devolution of powers.

The plan will come into force in April 2016.

According to the BBC, Manchester City Council confirmed 10 local authorities, 12 clinical commissioning groups, 14 NHS partners, NHS England and the government are in discussions on a “groundbreaking agreement for health and social care”.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “This is what the NHS wants to see as part of its own future.

“And it’s also about giving people in Manchester greater control over their own affairs in that city, which is central to our vision of the ‘northern powerhouse’- so it’s a very exciting development.”

Partner at national law firm Weightmans LLP, David Fagan, said: “The news of the proposed transfer of control of a £6B local budget for health and social care to a “Greater Manchester” body is a sign of the growing political drive towards the integration of health and social care.

“There seems little doubt that this is the way forward, the problem is how to achieve it.

“The issue raises numerous questions.

“These are very early days.

“How this progresses might give us a feel for just how the holy grail of health and social care integration might evolve over the coming years.

“Perhaps not surprisingly, Andy Burnham has already sounded a note of caution, and if there is a change of government in May, it could develop in a very different way from that currently envisaged.

“It might though blaze a trail.

“We live in interesting times.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .