Contracts have been signed to officially confirm ‘collaborative’ status for Integrated Care Northamptonshire’s Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism (MHLDA) programme.

This momentous occasion – which cements the next phase of work to deliver better outcomes for our county’s population – was marked with a special signing session at Berrywood Hospital in Northampton .In attendance to complete the signing of the contracts were Toby Sanders, Chief Executive of NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (NICB), and Angela Hillery, Chief Executive of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT).They were joined by MHLDA programme leads Anne Rackham and Morgan Price, Andy Willis, a former service user who is now a MHLDA lived experience lead, and David Williams, Director of Strategy and Partnerships for NHFT.

Collaboratives provide a legal framework for organisations to work together in partnership to design and improve services to meet the needs of communities as part of an integrated care system.

The formalisation of the MHLDA programme’s collaborative status means an outcomes-based contract is now in place for service providers in Northamptonshire to work jointly towards shared ambitions, with the priorities of service users and their families at the heart of strategic planning.