Greater Manchester Combined Authority set to create data-sharing authority

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is proposing to establish a data-sharing authority which it said would “help break down the barriers which stop public services sharing information”.

The GMCA's Executive is to be asked to approve the establishment of GM-Connect, using £500,000 from a £4m pot awarded by the Government to support innovative data-sharing, at a meeting on 29 January.



The new body would initially have four full-time staff, led by a Greater Manchester Chief Information Officer. Its work will be overseen by an Executive Board, made up of senior representatives from councils, health providers and other Greater Manchester public services.

“This small centre of excellence will enable improved understanding of the risks, challenges and opportunities in the area - identifying patterns, trends and relationships and helping allocate resources as effectively as possible,” the GMCA said.

“The information gleaned will support the area's integration of health and social care and wider reform of public services to ensure they are better connected and more effective. It also aims to avoid duplication where people have to give the same information repeatedly to public services.”

The combined authority said it hoped to make “a thing of the past” situations such as one identified in a recent Policy Exchange report, from outside Greater Manchester, where someone had to explain her father's circumstances to 10 different agencies after he had a hip operation, but still had to arrange a wheelchair, bath aids and injection appointments herself because the different services had not shared the information with each other.

As well as promoting the better use of information, GM-Connect will also be charged with ensuring Greater Manchester is safeguarding the information it holds and only using it appropriately.

Tony Lloyd, interim Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: "Improved data sharing is essential to successfully transforming public services in Greater Manchester and ensuring they are better integrated.

"It will enable us to build up a clearer and more detailed picture of what's happening across the area so we can target our resources as effectively as possible, as well as helping us to identify the people most in need of support. This includes reducing the costs of public services in a sustainable way by addressing issues, for example potential poor health, before they become expensive problems."