VCSE Response to Manchester Local Care Organisation Prospectus Consultation

Macc provided a strongly critical response to the consultation on the Manchester Local Care Organisation Prospectus based on discussion with a small number of voluntary sector organisations and a meeting with a number of key health and social care commissioners in the city.

Some of the main criticisms were:

• Failure to include the VCSE in writing the prospectus;
• Lack of clarity on the benefits of commissioning a Local Care Organisation;
• Insufficient recognition of the impact of proposed cuts of £49 million;
• Failure to describe a mechanism for transferring resources from hospital-based services to community-based services;
• Lack of a coherent or persuasive vision of services.

The response then details an alternative vision of the 3 pillars of an approach to better services:

1. A focus on how services can help to transform neighbourhoods which continue to experience the long-term effects of deindustrialisation and worklessness;
2. Developing an integration and workforce development model that includes carers and staff and volunteers from VCSE organisations rather than focusing predominantly on public sector employees;
3. Developing a rich understanding of asset-based approaches and using this to inform the develpment of locally-based services.