Health chiefs have hailed today's formal announcement of plans to devolve £6bn pooled health and social care budgets in Greater Manchester as ‘the greatest integration and devolution of care funding since the creation of the NHS in 1948'.

The comments from Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, follow the signing of a memorandum which would see the 10 councils comprising the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) agree a framework for joint-decision making on integrated care with the 12 NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and 15 NHS providers.

Under the terms of the memorandum, a shadow Health and Social Care Strategic Partnership Body will be formed next month to oversee the strategic development of the deal – which is to take effect from 1 April 2016.  In addition, a joint commissioning body will also be formed under the NHS devolution deal to agree decisions on health spending across Greater Manchester.