New system overseeing NHS in Blackpool will put focus on town's needs

The former locally based clinical commissioning groups have now been disbanded and replaced with an Integrated Care Board for Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Councillors had feared Blackpool might be left behind by being a small piece of a big regional organisation.

But pledges have been made the resort will still get the resources it needs.Professor Sarah O'Brien, chief nursing officer for the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, told a meeting of the council's Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee the focus would be "on getting the best resources for Blackpool".

This would reflect the town's complex health needs and incorporate strong work already being done in the town such as the provision of continuing care for people leaving hospital.

She added the new system was still in its transitional stage, with decisions still being made on how staff were being redeployed since the break up of the CCGs in July last year.

Karen Smith, director of adult services at Blackpool Council, who is also a director of the ICB, said the changes would ensure health and social services made better use of their collective resources.

She said: "One change we are seeing is that if one area is not using all its resources, we are saying give them to another part of the organisation and it might benefit us both."

Among the priorities of the new board is to promote careers in the health and social care sector among young people in Blackpool to fill vacancies and provide an economic boost.

Ms Smith said: "We live in a town where many young people leave school with low skills, but also we are a town with a lot of jobs in care and health.

"So we need to give people those skills, and we are promoting this including by working with the Job Centre and our schools."

Committee chairman Coun Michele Scott said she was pleased to receive reassurances the new system would keep Blackpool at the forefront of decision-making.

She said: "Being a small part of a very large system did cause us concern that we might be forgotten, so I am pleased to see the opportunities Blackpool will have."