Joint working between primary care and community services during COVID-19: a case study of Derbyshire’s integration journey
Community services and general practice in Derbyshire are on a journey towards integration, which is heading in a positive direction. Relationships are good, which brings efficiency benefits in itself. However, system leaders agree there is still a long way to go. With every forward step, more obstacles are revealed and must be navigated.
Overview
This case study forms part of a series published as part of this Neighbourhood Integration Project.
The organisations that contributed to this briefing faced a range of different workforce challenges. Portsmouth needed to invest time in bringing organisations with different working practices together. In Harrogate, the challenge was to sustain the good practice developed during its vanguard pilot. Newcastle had to work to develop a strategy and narrative about their vision for integration that people could relate to, while in East Cheshire, the task was to translate an already agreed strategy into concrete actions.
Despite the varied challenges they faced – and the different nature of the places and populations they serve – there is much common learning on integration at the neighbourhood level across these different organisations. To make progress, partnerships needed to:
- Invest in building relationships across different organisations and sectors to agree a common vision and embed changes in behaviours and working cultures.
- Ensure teams with responsibility for leading integration had buy-in from the executive and senior leadership teams as well as the flexibility to be creative in their approach.
- Involve and engage with staff at all point in the integration journey to co-design changes in services.
- Prioritise improvements in IT, with a focus on digital ways of working alongside co-locating teams where possible to align working practices.
