As a partnership organisation, we have been created to provide services on behalf of the people of Manchester. This allows us to bring together a range of services in the city that have traditionally been provided by different organisations.

The formal partners that MLCO work on behalf of are:

• Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
• Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Manchester City Council
• The Manchester Primary Care Partnership
• Greater Manchester Integrated Care.

The long-term aim is for MLCO to be a separate organisation in contractual terms. This was not possible from 1 April 2018, but all partners have been working collaboratively to ensure the MLCO executive has the delegated authority to manage the services deployed to it. A legal partnering agreement was formally approved in March 2018 to allow this to happen. We also have Section 75 agreement in place between the NHS and Manchester City Council to allow greater partnership working.

Staff are deployed to us from the partner organisations – so for NHS community healthcare services the majority of staff are deployed from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and for adult social care services staff are deployed to MLCO from Manchester City Council.

MLCO is accountable to regulators such as the CQC through the partners. For example, in healthcare terms, the CQC inspect us as part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Primary Care

A core building block of MLCO is that it has primary care at its heart. Primary care means the services that are the first point of contact for you in the community. Typically that means your GP and the services they provide.

We have worked closely with the GP Federations and the Local Medical Council (LMC) as the route into the 89 GP practices in the city. The Manchester Primary Care Partnership (MPCP) is one of four members of the MLCO Partnership Board.

The chief medical officer of MLCO is a GP. This has helped ensure that a partnership with primary care is at the heart of the MLCO delivery model for improving Manchester’s health.

Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise

A core purpose of the MLCO is to build social value in neighbourhoods and citywide. To do this we have ensured we have engaged with the thriving Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector in the city since we were established.

At a neighbourhood level, the voluntary sector work closely with our Integrated Neighbourhood Teams.

We also work closely with MACC – Manchester’s local voluntary and community sector support organisation. MACC’s purpose is to encourage, support and develop voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and individuals to have a real influence over the places and communities in which they live. You can read more about MACC on their website here.