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Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley

Health and care partnerships

What is Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Health and Care Partnership (HCP)?

Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley HCP is a partnership of NHS organisations, councils and the local community.

We are committed to working together to improve the health of people living in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley.

Our aim is to reduce health inequalities and provide the right support for local people to live well and stay well. When they are unwell, we want to support them to self-care where possible and access the right care and support in the right place when needed.

We plan to do this by building health and care services and support around individuals.

Which organisations are part of DGS HCP?

Around 260,000 people live in the area covered by Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley HCP.

There are 35,000 children aged from birth to nine years (13.2 per cent) in the area and 45,000 people aged 65 or over (16.9 per cent).

Life expectancy varies across the area. In Bean and Darenth ward, the life expectancy of the average male is 75.9 years. In Riverview ward in Sevenoaks area, it is 89.9 years.

This is not acceptable. We want to reduce this inequality and help as many people as possible to have the same opportunities to live a healthy and long life.

How things will change

At the moment, health services focus on making people better when they are ill. We plan to build health, care and support services around people, putting them at the heart of what we do, and tailoring care to the needs of individuals.

We want to join up services, work more closely than ever before and use our collective resource (staff, buildings and money) more effectively. We want colleagues, local people and the community to work with us to improve services provided by the NHS, social care, councils and the voluntary sector to meet the needs of local people.

Individuals and services will be at the centre of our decision making without organisational boundaries and historic ways of working getting in the way of doing the right thing at the right time.

We all have a responsibility to help people live their best lives. In the past, we have worked within our own organisations to make this happen. By coming together under the banner of Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley HCP, we hope to break down some of the organisational barriers which have sometimes prevented us from working effectively together in the past.

Governance

We have a partnership board, an advisory board, an operational steering group and five workstreams including:

  • workforce
  • finance and contracting
  • population health
  • communications and engagement
  • data and digital.

We plan to set up the following groups to make sure colleagues and local people work with us to develop plans:

  • citizens' panel
  • staff panel
  • elected members’ forum
  • third sector voice.

Get involved

If you’d like to be kept informed about our plans and opportunities to work with us to shape health and care services for local people in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley, contact us.

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