Greater Manchester Keyworker Function Programme

GMHSCP intends to introduce the national ‘Keyworker Programme’ at scale with a clear long-term capacity-development plan into Greater Manchester starting with the first phase of the programme in Rochdale and Salford and eventually rolling the programme out across all ten GM Localities (all in line with the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Recovery priorities ambition) that ‘every one of these children in an in-patient setting, or at risk of going into one, has a named keyworker from either health or local authority services to help the young person and their family navigate the system’ through facilitating shared clear person/family-led formulations or stories and thereby enable effective enhanced interventions addressing physical/psychological/social/other issues contributing to risks of placement breakdown.

This service specification seeks to explore the ‘Keyworker Function’ within the voluntary sector, in order to test new ways of working. The project has a clear set of deliverables and robust evaluation attached. The voluntary sector has been used due to the flexibility it offers in being able to recruit at pace, and its the independence from statutory bodies allowing it to offering a robust and impartial challenge to the systems and providers of care.

GMHSCP intends to introduce the national ‘Keyworker Programme’ at scale with a clear long-term capacity-development plan into Greater Manchester starting with the first phase of the programme in Rochdale and Salford and eventually rolling the programme out across all ten GM Localities (all in line with the NHS Long Term Plan and COVID-19 Recovery priorities ambition) that ‘every one of these children in an in-patient setting, or at risk of going into one, has a named keyworker from either health or local authority services to help the young person and their family navigate the system’ through facilitating shared clear person/family-led formulations or stories and thereby enable effective enhanced interventions addressing physical/psychological/social/other issues contributing to risks of placement breakdown.

This service specification seeks to explore the ‘Keyworker Function’ within the voluntary sector, in order to test new ways of working. The project has a clear set of deliverables and robust evaluation attached. The voluntary sector has been used due to the flexibility it offers in being able to recruit at pace, and its the independence from statutory bodies allowing it to offering a robust and impartial challenge to the systems and providers of care. The service is required to host 40 keyworkers and support direct supervision by 2023/24, with a mix of senior Key Worker leading the Strategic development and planning for the service and basic level keyworkers