‘It is strange, really. People often ask how our Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) is different and why it is succeeding, while so many have fallen down in this agenda for some time,' says Jim Taylor, Salford City Council's chief executive. The answer is largely the coterminous alignment of the partners involved and the long-term nurturing of local relationships.

With strong leadership in both the NHS trust and the council, an outstanding rated clinical commissioning group (CCG) a federated GP model and an engaged mental health trust and voluntary and community sector, Salford has ‘all the ingredients,' says Mr Taylor. ‘It comes from having mature enough relationships to work through differences.'