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:
- A focus on how services can help to transform neighbourhoods which continue to experience the long-term effects of deindustrialisation and worklessness;
- 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;
- Developing a rich understanding of asset-based approaches and using this to inform the develpment of locally-based services.