Integrated Personal Commissioning

From March 2017 to June 2018 Self Help UK was the voluntary sector lead for the Nottinghamshire Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) programme.

The IPC programme is a voluntary approach to person-centred health and social care. It aims to:

• Join up health and social care services so people with complex needs, carers and families can shape care that is effective and meaningful to them in their lives.
• Offer councils, NHS commissioners and health and care Providers technical support, regulation and financial flexibility to address the barriers they may experience as they change their systems.
• Partner with the Voluntary sector to design effective approaches to change, support individuals and drive the cultural changes needed.

Self Help UK focused on co-production - a way of working which involves patients, people who use services, carers and communities in equal partnership; engaging groups of people at the earliest stages of co-design, co-development and evaluation of services. People who have lived experience of a particular condition are often best placed to advise on what support and services will make a positive difference to their lives.

Self Help UK co-ordinated events for people receiving Personal Budgets to attend and shape the future of service. Carers of those with Personal Budgets were also welcome and those parent/carers of young people and children with Education and Health Care Plans.

​​​​​IPC is already making a big difference to people’s lives. This is being achieved by: working in partnership with people, having better conversations to understand what’s working, not working and what individuals want to achieve and by giving people more control to organise their own support with a Personal Health Budget (PHB).

During this period the IPC co-production group was established by Self Help UK and flourished into a successful group with a strong voice. At the end of June 2018 the county group and the city group planned to merge, created their own name and logo and now go from strength to strength. The work by Self Help UK with the co-production group was commended by NHS England as some of the best co-production work in the country.