What is this consultation about?

Shropshire Council aims to ensure that all residents have access to the support they need to live long, satisfying and productive lives. The promotion of health and wellbeing, and the prevention of avoidable disease, is central to this ambition.

Currently, around two thirds of people in Shropshire who die below the age of 75 years do so from avoidable causes.

Since April 2013, Shropshire Council has been given responsibility for planning health improvement and prevention services as part of the wider transfer of public health responsibilities from the NHS to local government.

In undertaking this duty, we are considering integrating these services within a social enterprise called ‘Help2Change’, which would be formed within the Council’s new provider vehicle ip&e (inspiring partnerships and enterprise) Ltd. Ip&e provides public services on the Council’s behalf and enables the Council to reinvest any profit back into services.

The proposal is that Help2Change would be structured as a non-profit distributing subsidiary of ip&e, which means that any profit it makes from providing services (e.g. beyond the County’s borders) would be reinvested directly into public health in Shropshire, thereby helping to grow local services.

What services would Help2Change provide?

We are proposing that Help2Change provides a ‘single point of access’ (e.g. via telephone and internet) to a suite of services that help you to improve your health and well-being. These services would be flexible (including ‘out of office hours’), accessible and delivered in a wide range of different venues and locations. These would be services aimed at keeping you well, improving your wellbeing and preventing illness. They would also be designed to help you manage any longstanding illnesses you suffer from, so as to minimise the extent to which your quality of life is affected.

It is proposed that services initially transferred to Help2Change will include:

• NHS Health Check –  a free medical check offered to people aged 40-74
• Help2Quit – a free stop-smoking service
• Help2Slim – a free service to help people lose weight
• Active4Health – resources and activities to help people become more physically active
• DrinkSafe – an alcohol brief advice service

Other services may follow (which may be subject to separate consultation where appropriate), and new services may be developed.

Why are we proposing to do this?

Shropshire Council recognises that in order to deliver our priorities and to improve the quality of life for local people, we need to develop different ways of working and delivering services. This proposal forms part of our wider Commissioning Strategy, which has already been consulted on and approved by Cabinet.

Shropshire Council currently commissions a range of preventive programmes from external providers, each delivered by separate organisations. By bringing all these preventive services together we can offer our residents a more holistic and ‘joined up’ service. This also makes for a more efficient use of public funds.

By changing the way we operate, our residents, local businesses and partners can access and develop with us unparalleled services, building on the wealth of preventive health expertise that exists in Shropshire, and enhance services by linking with academic units to stimulate research, innovation and inward investment.

It is intended that Help2Change will work closely with GPs, pharmacists, ShropDoc, community and voluntary groups, businesses, hospitals and NHS community trusts, to deliver high quality, integrated services that are convenient, accessible and designed around the needs of local people.

What are the alternative options?

Shropshire Council has the option to commission health improvement and prevention services from external providers, or to provide the services ‘in house’ from within the Council.

The option of providing services ‘in house’ would not fit with our strategic direction of travel in terms of forming a commissioning council, as described in the Council’s Business Plan and Financial Strategy 2014-17, and the Cabinet paper ‘Strategic Commissioning – Our Preferred Response to New Challenges’. The Council favours a move away from providing services in house towards using external provision, as this offers greater flexibility to innovate and develop new services.

If the Council were to commission these services from existing commercial providers, rather than by establishing a new social enterprise within ip&e, we would have less flexibility to build on the expertise that already exists within the Council and in local teams, to work collaboratively with our stakeholders, and to create social value (e.g. by creating local employment). In contrast, the Help2Change social enterprise model allows the profits derived from innovation and entrepreneurship to be reinvested into Shropshire’s public health services.

Please give us your feedback

In considering the future of the services we are asking individuals, health colleagues, community organisations, businesses and stakeholders to give us your thoughts on how you see health improvement and prevention services working in future.  Your feedback will help us to shape our plans to ensure that they meet the health and wellbeing needs of Shropshire residents.  

A decision on the way forward will be made by Shropshire Council’s Cabinet before the end of September 2014.