In April 2016, the Greater Manchester Health and Care Partnership took charge of the £6 billion spent on health and social care services in the region. 
The devolution deal also gave them a £450million Transformation Fund (over five years) to be used to change the way we do things in the longer term.
As a partnership, there is a clear vision for how they want to organise health and care services to improve them and make them sustainable for the future, which was set out in the plan, ‘Taking Charge’, in December 2015.
The partnership has chosen to mark this six month milestone with a report, which sets out where things are going well, where things are not going so well and where the next decisions lie. It sets out their collective achievements in the first six months, as well as the next steps in the devolution journey. It is frank and upfront about some of the challenges they continue to face at a time of severe funding constraint.
Over the next year, the partnership will continue to focus on preventing ill health; creating new local, integrated NHS and care systems; helping hospitals work better together and sharing and collaborating more across all public services. Greater Manchester is working on place-based systems of care, to meet the challenges in the sector.
Taking Charge Together is about many people and organisations in Greater Manchester having their say.
For further information and to read the report, visit: www.gmhsc.org.uk/news/taking-charge-six-months/