Collaborative working central to PFI schemes

6 Oct 05
Private Finance Initiative credits worth £125m awarded this week will provide incentives for working with the voluntary, health and private sectors, care services minister Liam Byrne has told Public Finance .

07 October 2005

Private Finance Initiative credits worth £125m awarded this week will provide incentives for working with the voluntary, health and private sectors, care services minister Liam Byrne has told Public Finance.

Byrne said five local authorities had submitted successful bids – Birmingham (£34.7m in credits), East Sussex (£34.7m), Medway (£17.34m), Tower Hamlets (£15.97m) and Wolverhampton (£22.6m).

'The hallmark of these bids is their close integration of social care, health and the voluntary sector,' Byrne said. 'A lot are doing this through co-location of services but there is also a lot of innovation in service mix.'

He singled out the Birmingham bid as a good example. 'There, they will provide services for 250 older people, giving them access to residential and day care, as well as intermediate and respite care. There will also be an outreach service, so they are not just being reactive but proactive too.'

Byrne said there were opportunities for voluntary organisations to expand their roles and for social care services to integrate with local trusts.

'These PFI schemes signal the clear direction of travel for collaborative working between social care and primary health care. They should be working together to help people live a fulfilling life.'

He accepted the fact that some local authorities would be disappointed, but insisted that he had chosen five innovative bids. The DoH still held around £30m in social care PFI credits and this would be kept as a contingency against price inflation in the five schemes. But some of the failed bids could yet use this cash.

The £125m is part of around £250m being spent on social care research and development. Byrne added that the government would announce shortly £60m for pilots that examine ways to keep elderly people out of hospital. This would be complemented by the out-of-hospital care white paper at Christmas and a King's Fund commissioned report on social care financing by Derek Wanless, due in February.

'We will draw all these strands together at the end of next year to set out our bid for social care in the next Spending Review,' Byrne added.

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