Mike Walsh and Russell Thompson both operate as full time consultants and have achieved success in the past few months with the launch of Optilias thew new LATC created by Wokingham Council, the launch of another LATC within the next few weeks by Northamptonshire County Council, and the support at the present time for Aberdeen City Council who are actively reviewing this model.

CHS therefore remain leading consultants in the externalisation of public services having delivered some of the Country’s first LATC’s with proven outcomes of efficiency savings and new models of service delivery combining the best elements of the public and private sectors.

Visit our client list to see the scope and diversity of our work.

Certainly loneliness is one of the major factors and problems for older people but these comments suggest a bit of ‘social engineering’ – a young Government Advisor telling older people what to do shows a degree of disrespect.   If you have worked all your life it is your choice to remain retired or live in a large home and certainly not the States.

Nonetheless an interesting alternative angle on how to address the pressures on older care services!

The Government response on the long term funding of care as proposed by Andrew Dilnot could not be occurring at a more critical time.  The warning signals are already there that the Treasury Department will not loosen the purse strings to release the required £1.7 billion pounds per year to deliver a fair and equitable system for all us in our old age.  Dilnot’s central argument that everyone should be liable for the first £35k on long term care is a good one thereby releasing middle England what became to be called the middle class tax with peoples capital assets being taken down to the last £21k.

Royal Commissions have come and gone as have reports such as the Wanless Report from the Kings Fund skillfully highlighting the time bomb of old age to come.   2012 provides stark evidence of our ageing population.  On average around 150,000 people each year reach the land mark age of 65 well in 2012 750,000 do!  The often quoted baby boomers have reached retirement age – luckily for the Government this is also the generation who never had it so good with a level of affluence, life long job security, and crucially a home owning middle class.  This will ease some of the burden through private funding for care but the tidal wave of social care demand is now upon us in the week local authorities are being criticised for increasing their costs for care.  A bumpy ride awaits.

The primary sticking point for Council’s remains procurement processes which makes the LATC model particularly attractive in both driving through much needed efficiencies as well as enabling former public sector services to operate as a private company in the wider market.  Understanding of the ‘Teckal Exemption’ is key for Councils which enables such externalisations to occur without going to the market as well as the drafting of the business case to prove value for money as the statutory instrument to validate such a transfer.

CHS have now worked successfully with over 12 Councils in scoping and enabling Councils to go down this road.  As such we are happy to offer consultancy advice so please contact us .

Contact us at info@careandhealthsolutions.co.uk if a meeting is required.

Both Ernst and Young and CHS have delivered transformation and new delivery models across several County Councils and Local Authorities.  This is a further opportunity to hear about our experience and gain support and advice in creating new models of service delivery coupled to efficiency savings.

This seminar is aimed at Chief Executives and Senior Managers wishing to consider New Models of Delivery.

For Seminar details please contact Gayatri Persad at gpersad@uk.ey.com or mark@careandhealthsolutions.co.uk

Radicalism and honesty from our politicians is called for in reviewing Pensions, the role of the private sector, and the increased responsibilities of the private individual in the coming decade.  A healthy and honest wake up call is needed by all of us in recognising the levels of saving we all we need to do for our old age.   Lets hope this becomes the leading political debate in the coming years before it is to late.

The Seminar which will be in November will be aimed at CEO’s and Director’s of Councils wishing to learn more about alternative models of service delivery including the LATC, Mutuals, and Social Enterprises.  Building on our direct experiences as leading specialists in this field the Seminar will take delegates through each step of the process in creating and delivering such models.  Direct examples of Wokingham of Essex LATCs will be used.

Further details will be publicised shortly.

These proposals will also see the increased rights of communities and public sector workforces to have the right to run their own services through mutual and co-operative models.   We could therefore be witnessing the beginning of the break up of public services as we know them with a reduction in control from Whitehall.    Whether the mechanisms to enable this radicalism to occur exists remains to be seen.   At the same time a potential land mark day of industrial action by Southampton City Council employees faced with redundancy or accepting revised contract terms will be watched by Councils across the Country.   We therefore  have an interesting and ‘heady cocktail mix’ of agendas coming together in the reshaping of local government and increased power of the individual.