Greater Manchester

Information sharing is seen as fundamental to delivering Greater Manchester’s (GM’s) public service reform ambitions, as by transforming the way information is used, this will empower GM’s frontline workforce to make more informed decisions about how and when they work with individuals and families. It will also support early intervention and prevention, helping ensure that the appropriate services are delivered at the right time, supporting people to become healthier, resilient and empowered.

GM has led the way for devolution to local places* and aspires to do the same with information sharing. As a result, the devolved powers set out across a series of devolution agreements cover not only services such as health, transport, housing and skills, but also crosscutting enablers such as governance and information sharing.

GM-Connect
GM-Connect is a new data commission, established in 2015/16 as a key enabler for integrated public service reform and devolution across Greater Manchester. It’s role is to champion, co-ordinate, facilitate and deliver data sharing activity across GM, focusing on opportunities to:

• add value and create insight.
• help improve and re-design services, especially at points of transition.
• deliver better outcomes, for the city region and its residents.
• join up information silos and break down barriers to sharing data.

Case studies
The Centre has been working with GM-Connect to unearth and capture examples of best practice from across Manchester and the case studies below focus on the role of information sharing in supporting health and social care integration. This is another area where GM is leading the way – with devolved control over integrated health and social care budgets since 1 April 2016. A key strand of GM’s devolution ambitions, health and social care integration aims to deliver not only improved health but also improve wellbeing, reduce worklessness and support people back into employment as a result.

Click on the links below to download either the executive summaries or the full reports.

• Trafford Care Co-ordination Centre executive summary
• Trafford Care Co-ordination Centre full report
• Wigan Sharetocare case study full version
• Wigan Sharetocare case study executive summary

To find out more about GM-Connect, watch our video with Eric Applewhite, Programme Director at GM-Connect, who talked to the Centre about devolution and the role of information sharing, as well as the key challengers and enablers to public service reform. You can get a taster from the video below or visit our YouTube channel to see the full set of videos.