The response from public sector providers to the handling of the pandemic has been nothing short of immense. It’s also been a game changer in the way that we communicate and develop joined up strategies and actions. Structures established at local levels to coordinate resources and align emergence responses have confirmed that across public sector services we inhabit common ground. We share responsibilities for people, businesses and the places themselves and the last two years have proved that traditional fixed boundaries are not conducive to offering coordinated, demand driven services.
Continental European countries are often cited as providing clear examples of joined up public service delivery. Examples are many, from urban planning through to community focussed leisure schemes and the design of flexible multi needs supported accommodation. NHS England’s pilot programme of six pioneer health and wellbeing centres is underpinned by the option to enable integrated care board (ICB) ownership of property. Sleaford’s will provide place-based services in the Lincolnshire town with the opportunity to develop our own example of such planning whilst drawing on shared learning over the past 12 months.
The programme is clearly based around improving the health offer to the local community as a starting point. But for us the driver was also about recognising the common ground that we occupy and early on in the process we created a partnership of health providers, county council and district council-based services to develop a joint vision for the town.
So much of what we do overlaps or interlinks. Take homelessness services as an example which is one of those core statutory services provided by councils. Service users often have high levels of need which cross the boundaries of health interventions, social care as well as the processes of homelessness assessments and finding long term stable accommodation. In many cases vulnerable service users have to weave their own route between a variety of different public sector teams in different locations to make linkages that work for them. The centre gives us the opportunity to bring access to these services together into one public sector hub and to formally recognise this shared common ground.
The opportunity is something we approach in a holistic sense rather than simply focussing on the building itself. Recognising the good practice in continental urban planning the whole development will be subject to a rigorous master planning exercise. It’s not simply a case of designing a building, its understanding how it can be made to work within the town of Sleaford. It’s asking questions about how service users will be able to access the centre using traditional walking and cycling routes in addition to vehicle users. It’s also considering how the centre links with other facilities and commercial opportunities in the town so that it complements rather than replaces existing provision whilst also remaining adaptable to change and opportunity. It’s also about recognising that the way we work and deliver services is in mid revolution and that channel shift to technology driven solutions is now meeting changing customer expectations as well as helping the battle against climate change by reducing the requirement for journeys.
The project in Sleaford recognises these opportunities and our solution is both focused on joining up functions to the benefit of service users and recognising the advantages of master planning to complement the town itself. It’s a vision shared by our strategic leads across councils and NHS service providers and it’s an opportunity we are looking forward to realising over the next few years.
Philip Roberts is Deputy Chief Executive of North Kesteven District Council and member of the Sleaford Project Board. He explains:
“I was pleased to be given the opportunity to prepare the blog as this initiative fits neatly with the priorities and ambitions of North Kesteven District Council. The health and wellbeing of our residents has been a long running priority for the council, and we have established a series of programmes focussed on the social determinants of health linked to our vision of ‘A District of Flourishing Communities’. The initiative is a chance to make step change and bring together both the preventive work we traditionally engage with as well as direct services delivered through our NHS partners.”
Last Updated on 6 July 2022