Joint services in Powys move another step closer

A pilot scheme to combine a senior post within Powys County Council and Powys teaching Health Board as part service integration plans will start in January.

The two organisations have agreed to combine the posts of Chief Executive of Powys teaching Health Board and the council’s Strategic Director, Care & Well-Being for an initial nine-month period.

Meeting this week the two agreed that the pilot would be formally launched in January 2011 but that shadow arrangements will start as early as next month.

A formal agreement, known as a Memorandum of Understanding, is being developed which will set out what both organisations want to achieve from the combined management arrangements.

Workshops with senior managers and roadshows with staff and members of the public are planned to take place before Christmas to explain how the new arrangements will work.

For example one plan is to combine the Council’s Adult Living Programme and the Health Board’s Strategic Outline Programme into a single planning process. The move will also involve integrating operational management on a locality basis.

Additional integration work will continue in a number of other areas, including children’s services.