Collaborative approaches to using subscriptions

Our intention is to always strive to identify and deliver work that will benefit or have a positive impact on a wider area, such as a STP area or indeed the whole NW footprint. In this way, we believe that we are delivering value for money for all subscribers. These are some examples from 2017/18:

In Greater Manchester, we have worked with the Local Eye Health Networks to roll out the Eye Health Made Easy scheme and we are currently contributing to the development of a Framework for Transforming Eye Health Services for people living in Greater Manchester. We supported the implementation of a similar scheme in Cheshire and Merseyside.
We have facilitated a legal workshop for the Pan Lancashire area “Understanding the legal requirements and processes for discharging patients to community settings and using these to ensure that people are supported in the least restrictive environment”
Greater Manchester subscribers have asked us to do some work to increase the uptake of annual health checks for people with LD. Learning from this work was shared at an event. We have developed a toolkit that can be used to review and develop whole system improvement plans to increase the number of people who have had an Annual Health Check. We have worked with a couple of CCG’s to support their improvement plan and as part of the subscription offer we are able to facilitate a workshop for each area that would like to use the toolkit.
We have supported the physical health work streams across the NW by activities such as mapping and sharing cancer resources,
We have worked with NW Universities and other partners to bid for cancer related research funding,
We have facilitated STOMP workshops to share good practice and worked with the North regional STOMP leads to ensure that learning from across the wider footprint is shared,
We have supported LeDeR Steering Groups to establish in Greater Manchester, Pan Lancashire and Cheshire/ Merseyside and supported Experts by Experience to be actively supported as members of the Steering Groups.
We have mapped and collated some good practice examples of health-related outcomes for inclusion in social care provider frameworks and shared these with commissioners.
Subscribers have asked us to facilitate some workshops to support the sharing of best practise in relation to Employment, Housing, Friendships and Relationships.
Social isolation is proven to contribute to poor mental and physical health. In 2015 Public Health England concluded that ‘the quality and quantity of social relationships affect health behaviours, physical and mental health, and risk of mortality’ (‘Reducing social isolation across the life course’, Practice resource: September 2015) therefore any initiatives that reduce social isolation are likely to promote better health and wellbeing amongst target groups.

In Greater Manchester the North West Training and Development Team will be working locally to develop projects and community activities to reduce social isolation amongst people with learning disabilities, autism or both. The primary focus will be upon helping people to develop sustainable activities in their localities, which will include activities that help people to gain the skills and confidence that is needed to seek gainful paid or unpaid employment.

In Pan Lancashire/ Blackburn/ Blackpool and South Cumbria we supported the development of a bid for additional resources to develop this work also.

NWTDT has supported Greater Manchester through establishing the Greater Manchester Joint Training Partnership which, with the support of people with a learning disability, autism or both, their families, commissioners and providers of services is developing annual programmes of training for service providers to add value to the training currently on offer. This will include providing induction and values based training for staff as they enter the field, and training to assist in career development. Given the high turnover over staff in the field this will not only support improvements in service quality, but also retention of staff across sectors.
In Cheshire/ Mersey we have supported the LeDeR Steering Group to develop a short film to explain more about the LeDeR Programme. This video has also been shared with GM and Pan Lancashire’s LeDeR Steering Groups who have added their own local piece to the film.
We supported Blackpool self-advocates consider how they can best link to the wider Confirm and Challenge group work supporting coproduction. Members from Blackpool attend the Pan Lancs group to help provide a link.
The NW Expert Hub supports CTRs and CeTRs for people who are (or are at risk of becoming) in-patients and provides employment opportunities for self-advocates and families from across the North West to work as Experts by Experience. The NW Expert Hub is only able to exist because it can build on the infrastructure created through subscription to NWTDT.