From 1 April Tower Hamlets GP Care Group (THGPCG) will act as manager of a partnership to deliver local community services with Barts Health NHS Trust, East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and the CCG. THGPCG will directly manage the developing single point of access for community services, advocacy and interpreting services for primary and community services, the team that monitor patient experience of community services as well as GP Out of Hours Services.
Chris is supporting THGPCG as Chief Executive and from a modest start in 2013 THGPCG has become a key partner in the local health and social care system with an annual turnover of approximately £20 million and around 250 staff.
Tower Hamlets is a national MCP Vanguard site; which helped shape and deliver the innovative approach.

We are pleased to have supported Tower Hamlets GP Care Group in being awarded the community services contract by Tower Hamlets CCG. THGPCG will be the prime contractor and subcontract most community health services to ELFT and Barts Health, holding them to account for improving outcomes. Collectively the group of providers is called the Tower Hamlets Integrated Provider Partnership.

Tower Hamlets GP Care Group Community Interest Company, is a not for profit community interest company which is owned by 37 practices in the London borough. 

Tower Hamlets GP Care Group will be providing health visiting services to Tower Hamlets for at least the next three years from 1 April 2016.

We are delighted tp have supported the Care Group's winning bid and will now be focussing on mobilisation of the contract.

We are delighted that Gateway Primary Care CIC has been awarded a 15 year APMS contract to continue providing primary care services at 3 practices in Rotherham.

The social enterprise has gone from strength to strength and now with a long term contract should continue to flourish; the next step will be to improve care by moving one of the practices to new premises in the new year.

The social enterprise was established 5 years ago, Tracy was appointed as Chair and Chris a non-executive director. We supported Jean Mcvann and the team to develop the successful bid to the CCG.

Chris been appointed Interim CEO for a federation of GP practices in Tower Hamlets.

The Tower Hamlets GP Care Group CIC (THGPCG) is a social enterprise company which is wholly owned by the 37 practices in the Borough.  Tower Hamlets has an enviable record for improving primary care over the last few years, and the social enterprise is another step in the journey.  THGPCG's purpose is to give the GPs, as providers, a voice within the health and social care system (they are of course well represented on the Clinical Commissioning Group), and to continue to develop and improve primary care for the benefit of the community.  An important part of this is the ability to tender for healthcare contracts which will secure services and income for GP practices to ensure the future of primary care.

The key health and social care stakeholders in the system have established the Tower Hamlets Integrated Provider Partnership (THIPP) as a vehicle to integrate care.  THIPP partners comprise the GP Care Group, Tower Hamlets CCG, Barts Health, East London Foundation Trust and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.  THIPP successfully applied to become one of NHS England's Vanguard Projects as a Multi-specialty Community Provider (MCP) and is now receiving support and funding to develop new models of care over the next few years.

Tower Hamlets CCG and THGPCG have also successfully applied for support from the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund to provide 7 day services, and will be launching new care hubs in October.

On top of that there is a procurement for Community Health Services, and building the capacity and capability within THGPCG at the same time.

UnitingCare's contract to deliver "unplanned-care" services to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's over 65 community and other adults living with long term conditions commenced on 1st April 2015.  Having been one of the key designers of the new service, Tracy Cannell has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of UnitingCare to help lead the team during the second 100 days of mobilisation and beyond.  This is a part-time role and Tracy will continue to support our other clients.
For more information about UnitingCare please check  
http://www.unitingcare.co.uk

We are delighted to be celebrating Banks Cannell's 4th Birthday today.  Thank you to all our clients, associates and friends for giving us the privilege and pleasure of working with you.
 

How quickly a year goes.  This time last year UnitingCare was one of a small number of short-listed bidders for a tender to become the system integrator of Cambridgeshire's older people's health services.  We joined the UnitingCare bid team to provide advice about the service model and workforce, and GP engagement.

We were delighted that UnitingCare was awarded the contract which commenced on 1st April 2015.  Since award we have been supporting the transfer of staff from Cambridgeshire Community Services to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) which is one of the partners in UnitingCare, and the mobilisation of the JET and OneCall services.  Tracy Cannell acted as Interim Manager of Community Services on behalf of CPFT, and Chris Banks has supported integration with the acute hospitals.

We have been joined by our associates Helen Childs (JET) and Jayne Haskins (JET), David Robertson (Nurse Lead for CPFT Community Services), Tim Curtis (Communications support), and Teresa Gooch (Service Improvement).

In March 2014 we were delighted to be appointed to the Trust's framework for bid management support.  In October we got a call for help, the first time the Trust had used the framework. The only snag - the call was on the 7th October, the bid was due in on the 31st October. And not just one bid but two in close succession.  Okay - drop everything and get up to Stockton!  Three days later we were with the Trust team working developing a bid plan and working through the service model for two school nursing services.  A fairly frantic three weeks later, with some great work by the Trust team supported by Banks Cannell bids were prepared, approved by the Trust Executive and submitted to the contracting authorities.

The ink wasn't even dry when the Trust had to submit a tender for smoking cessation services in mid-November.  No problem, we and the Trust team burnt the midnight oil and the third bid was duly submitted.

And in January 2015, we were very pleased to hear the Trust had won all three bids.  A great result born out of hard graft and great teamwork.

See this tweet from Social Investment Business following a reception we attended at The Treasury on 25th November to hear Minister, Rob Wilson MP praising the success of the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund.

Banks Cannell supported Steps to Work (Walsall) Ltd to win the largest gain so far for the fund.