Nine hospitals and 14 GP-led bids have been given part of £200m funding to provide integrated primary, secondary and social care. The approval of the ‘vanguard’ projects marks the next major stage in the implementation of NHS chief executive Simon Stevens’ Five-Year Forward View.

NHS England said that there were 269 applications from groups of nurses, doctors and other health and social care staff. In all, 29 bids were approved, including six bids by care homes.

The two main new models of care – the GP-led ‘multi-specialty community providers’ (MCPs) and the hospital-led ‘primary and acute care systems’ (PACS) – were included as part of NHS England’s Five-Year Forward View.

It had said that MCPs will be the more common new model, with PACS only established in areas of poor GP recruitment. But nine of the 29 bids approved were from hospital-led organisations.

The new models will employ a mix of primary and secondary care staff to deal with commonly encountered conditions such as diabetes, dementia and mental illness. Some will see some employing ‘social prescribing teams’ who will be able to refer patients to voluntary organisations and local authority services.

The Dudley borough vanguard bid

The team behind the Vanguard application from Dudley is led by Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group and includes Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Dudley Council for Voluntary Services and Future Proof health Ltd.

The Multispecialty Community Provider model proposed by the partnership in Dudley aims to develop a network of integrated, GP-led providers across health and social care, each working at a level of 60,000 people, reaching a total population of around 318,000 across Dudley. This system will see the frontline of care working as “teams without walls” for the benefit of patients, taking shared mutual responsibility for delivering shared outcomes.

Under the new provider system Ella, a lady with frailty & long-term conditions & registered with a GP in Dudley, will have her care overseen by a multi-disciplinary team in the community including specialist nurses, social workers, mental health services and voluntary sector link officers. This will ensure holistic care that better meets all of Ella’s medical & social needs at one time in one place, but allows her to access advice and support for the isolation she can feel at living alone far from her family, and combatting her episodes of anxiety. When Ella needs help urgently there is a 24 hour rapid response and urgent care centre which provide a single coordinated point of access for her so she doesn’t need to call 999.

As a result of the health and care system working better together in this way, people like Ella are not only receiving the coordinated support necessary for their health needs but they are also linking to  the wider network of care and social interaction in their community to help them to live more independently for longer.

For more information about the 29 successful bids visit: For full details click here