NEWS NEWS / IN FOCUS
Hamberley, Gracewell and Bournville Village Trust Hamberley has unveiled its most ambitious project to date at the heart of the historic Bournville community in Birmingham. The award-winning developer worked in partnership with Gracewell Healthcare Ltd and Bournville Village Trust (BVT) to build a £9m state-of-the-art luxury care home. The 80-bedroom home is integral to Bournville’s new care village, College Green, which is being
developed by BVT, the ExtraCare Charitable Trust and Gracewell Healthcare Ltd, and will feature a retirement village, nursing and care home, 16 independent living homes and a health and wellbeing centre once complete. This home will be swiftly followed by new Hamberley developments in Adderbury, Bath, Lane End, Little Bookham, Sutton, Sutton Coldfield and Woking.
Skills for Care Skills for Care has announced that five new members have joined their board, bringing with them extensive experience in the social care and health sectors. The new board members are Sam Jones, who is the lead executive at NHS England supporting the delivery of the New Care Models; Sue McMillan, who has recently retired from the Deputy Chief Inspector role at the Care Quality Commission;
Munira Thobani, Independent Executive Coach and Organisational Development Consultant; Paul Snell, Chief Executive of Walsingham Support; and Paul Kingston who is a Professor of Ageing and Mental Health at the University of Chester. They join as Professor Peter Beresford, Judith Salmon, Frank Ursell and Deborah McKenzie step down after completing their terms on the Skills for Care board.
Acquisition of Priory and Partnerships in Care facilities Funds advised by BC Partners, a leading European private equity firm, have entered into an agreement to acquire a portfolio of 22 mental health facilities from Acadia Healthcare. The transaction is subject to approval by the Competition and Markets Authority. The hospitals are based across the UK and offer a wide variety of tailored programmes to suit patients’ specific behavioural care needs. The facilities were part of
either Priory Group or Partnerships in Care and will be formed into a new company led by Joy Chamberlain, former Group Chief Executive of Partnerships in Care and an experienced figure in the UK’s independent healthcare sector. Once formed, the new company will have more than 2,000 employees and offer approximately 1,000 beds across the 22 hospitals. BC Partners was advised by PJT Partners, KPMG and Candesic.
Audley Care contracts As part of its commitment to being at the forefront of care provision, Audley Care has offered enhanced contracts to all its care staff.
It has offered all 231 personal care assistants permanent contracts, which includes a contributory pension and benefits.
In focus The introduction of Sustainability and Transformation Plans WHAT ARE STPS?
STP is a new acronym for the health and care sector. STPs, or Sustainability and Transformation Plans are being published and are set to reorganise health and care at a local level.
WHAT'S THE STORY?
STPs were launched by NHS England in December 2015, with the intention of ensuring that health and social care services are built around the needs of local populations and developed as local plans, which take account of natural communities. Draft plans were submitted in June 2016 with final plans due from the end of October. England has been divided in 44 areas (with an average population of 1.4m people) for the purposes of producing STPs which will apparently join up health and care services in these local areas. The scope of STPs is very broad and includes improving quality and efficiency of services, health and wellbeing and developing new models of care. The STP will include the key health and care priorities for the local area. Although to date, the guidance has mostly focused on the NHS, the STPs must cover integration with local authorities.
AND?
The so-called 'place-based plans' will determine the future of health and care in their area. They are, therefore, a significant change, and represent a real shift in the way in which the NHS plans services. There appears to be consensus across the health and care sectors
that integrated models of care are necessary for the future.
WHY SHOULD CARE PROVIDERS BE INTERESTED?
From April 2017, STPs will become the single application and approval process for accessing NHS transformation funding. They are intended to be part of the way in which the objectives of NHS England's Five Year Forward View gets implemented. Although the incentives are considered to be weak, they are likely to prove influential as a means of commissioning services. It is vital that care providers (almost all of which are in the independent sector) are being involved by local authorities in the planning process as this will be the key to implementation.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
STPs are now being published. They indicate the merging of services, including hospitals, and the merging of clinical commissioning groups, as well as shared back-office services and efforts to reduce duplication of roles. Probably one of the biggest challenges for the emerging STPs is that of balancing rising demand and the pressure of regulation with continued austerity and the need to make savings for the NHS. Local social care markets are already fragile with growing calls for Better Care Fund money to be brought forward to help ensure some sustainability of the market for care services. CMM December 2016 21