WIREDGOV

Health Minister Vaughan Gething yesterday announced nearly £15 million funding to transform the way health and social care is delivered in Swansea Bay area.

The money is the latest tranche to be announced from the Welsh Government’s £100 million Transformation Fund to be announced. 

Mr Gething said it will be used for pilot projects that will bring health and social care services closer together and provide care closer to people’s homes. If successful these new ways of working could then be rolled-out across the whole of Wales. 

The Fund has been created to support the Welsh Government’s long term plan for health and social care, A Healthier Wales. 

The money will be split between two projects, which are being led by the West Glamorgan Regional Partnership.

• The Western Glamorgan ‘Our Neighbourhood Approach’ initiative gets £5.9m to develop ways of bringing care services together so patients experience a seamless service, while also empowering people and communities to manage their own health and well-being. The project will cover the Swansea and Neath Port Talbot local authority areas. 
• £8.8 million is for the “Whole System Approach” model to be tested in seven different areas, building on the work already under way in Cwmtawe. The projects will bring communities, individuals and different organisations closer together to deliver care closer to home.  The projects will start out in Cwmtawe and Neath and then further developed in Llwchwr and Upper Valleys before being rolled out to the Afan, Swansea Bay, Swansea City and Penderi areas. 

Mr Gething yesterday said:

I am pleased to announce the latest funding from our Transformation Fund to develop innovative new ways of working in the Swansea Bay area. We need to radically change the way we provide health and social care in Wales if we are to meet the future demand on those services. 

Our long-term plan for health and social services, A Healthier Wales details how we can achieve this. In short we need to create new ways of working and deliver services closer to home to reduce pressure on hospitals. I look forward to seeing how the projects in Swansea Bay develop and hope to see them rolled-out across Wales.

Councillor Rob Jones is the Leader of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and the Chair of the West Glamorgan Regional Partnership Board. He yesterday said:

This investment is great news for us as a region. New and innovative approaches to health and social care provision are changing the way in which people are supported. This funding will help us make further progress in terms of maximising the assets available in communities and will enable services to work in a more joined-up way.” 

Swansea Bay University Health Board’s Head of Primary Care, Hilary Dover, yesterday said:

We are delighted to have been successful in securing transformation funding to further develop the new model of delivering primary services in Wales.

This builds on the model we have already begun to introduce in Cwmtawe, which has been well received by the wider community and by staff, improving access to services.