New ways of working – leaders give commitment to next steps

Leaders from across Shropshire have given their backing to the ongoing development of new ways of working which have been piloted in the county.

Councillors and representatives from Shropshire Council, the police, fire service, health, housing, voluntary and community organisations joined together at an event in Church Stretton this month to discuss the impact of different ways of designing and delivering services.

These have been explored in Church Stretton taking a ‘local commissioning’ approach which recognises that partners can work better together to shape services for each community and its particular needs and challenges.

The leaders had met earlier in the year to plan the work, with the aim of ensuring that services don’t cost more than they should, focus further support where it is most important, are delivered by the best people to do the job and support local jobs and economic growth.

They had seen statistical data, financial information, and heard people’s real-life stories, before agreeing to prototype new ways of working focused on working better together to:

• look after the town
• support older people to live independently for longer at home
• support people into work, and in turn, create an economically vibrant community. 

At this month’s event the leaders looked to see if any refinements could strengthen the work, agreed that the prototypes should continue and also be extended to wider areas where this was found to benefit new communities. The work to look after the town will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and the other prototypes will be reviewed again in the autumn.

They also gave a commitment to support the next steps in extending the local commissioning approach by working with communities in Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Wem and Craven Arms, and looking at themes in specific areas.

Local governance structures are being established in these new localities, as has been established in Church Stretton, to support wide community involvement, as well as ensure that local leaders are at the heart of the work and making decisions locally.

The themes, bringing together partners and building on work to date, are:

• Whitchurch – supporting older people to live independently in the community, and if they need to go to hospital, supporting their rehabilitation back to the community
• Shrewsbury (Monkmoor) – giving children the best start in life
• Oswestry – reducing substance misuse
• Oswestry – supporting and promoting economic growth
• Church Stretton – providing further support and training to prevent older people falling and, in turn, reduce calls to the ambulance service to assist people after a fall. 

Keith Barrow, Leader of Shropshire Council, said:

“Leaders from across Shropshire have joined together again and shared a clear commitment to progress local commissioning work in the county.

“The pilot in Church Stretton has shown the positive impact that can be made in a short time.  We heard from people who have benefitted from the new ways of working, and their stories highlighted the difference we can make to people’s lives.  The prototypes have demonstrated that we can remove duplication, support people more quickly and effectively, help more people into work, and meanwhile savings can be made in the long term.

“We will now continue with this work in Church Stretton, and work with more communities across Shropshire.

“We’ve also learned from the work to date that local commissioning is an innovative approach, and we acknowledge that we need to keep learning and adapting to ensure that we are meeting communities’ needs in the best way possible.

“By working in this way we can make changes based on what really matters to our communities and, at the same time, get the most from the funding, expertise and resources available to better face the challenges of the current and future economic climate.”

He added that the work in new areas was at an early stage:

“These areas have been highlighted by partners in our communities, which we have investigated further by looking at the data, and which has been subsequently agreed by leaders.  Further work will be taking place to gather more detailed information; we will talk to people about their experiences of using services, understand what is important, and make changes based on these findings and discussions.”

For further information go to shropshire.gov.uk/commissioning.