Combined Authorities

We are successfully working with Combined Authorities to bring preventative public services to life - services that help every resident to stay well and flourish, rather than waiting until there's a crisis to help. Much better for residents, and financially sustainable for public services.

In the foreground, we're helping to run experiments that show what preventative support for families, and community-based mental health support look like. We’re also helping to spread and scale those models which show tangible impact on people’s lives, and reduce demand on expensive, crisis services like A&E.

In the background, we're helping to grow the workforce, leadership and evidence-base needed for these new ways of working to become the norm. We’re helping leaders at all levels to name and tackle the barriers that are getting in the way of preventative public services. These range from how we take decisions, what we measure, and where the money flows to our norms of leadership, practice, and the values we live every day.

Our approach

Our approach is grounded in building real partnerships for change - between Combined Authorities, their member councils, public sector and VCSFE partners, and most importantly, the communities they serve.

Preventative public services are only possible where all these are working together in open, trusting, mutually supportive relationships. So these are the foundations we are building, all the time, whilst doing practical work to help improve people’s lives.

"This work is helping leaders like me to stand in other people’s shoes and solve real live problems together...all of the stuff we don’t usually do, and that we absolutely must do if we are going to make our ambitions for public service reform a reality."

Will Blandamer, Executive Director of Health and Adult Care & Deputy Place Based Lead, Bury Council

How we can help you

Co-design and spread successful new models of preventative public services
Develop confident, connected leaders, who can lead the shift to preventative public services
Generate evidence, insight and a culture of continuous learning by building a Combined Authority-wide learning network
Build true partnerships for change across places and sectors
Strategy and policy support to senior leaders to name and tackle the system barriers to preventative public services

There has never been a better moment to make a decisive, regional shift to preventative public services with national government committed to prevention, and deepening devolution to Combined Authorities. We also know that the environment for public services has never been tougher.

Our approach helps to solve the challenges of today, and build towards sustainable solutions for the future at a regional level.

"“There’s so much brilliant stuff going on [across localities], but it’s hard to know about it all. Hearing how others have unblocked their system demonstrates that longstanding issues can be changed… if we can work better together in our systems."

Philippa Johnson Place Based Lead (Stockport), NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care