GREATER Manchester and NHS England have agreed to bring together health and social care budgets totalling £6 billion.

This trailblazing move sees NHS England, 12 NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups, 15 NHS providers and 10 local authorities - including Bury - agree a framework for health and social care, with plans for joint decision-making on integrated care to support physical, mental and social wellbeing.

Last Friday's announcement followed the move by Chancellor George Osborne to adopt a Northern Powerhouse strategy, giving more powers to local authorities to make their own decisions.

A Memorandum of Understanding, approved and countersigned by the Chancellor and the Health Secretary, now puts local people in the driving seat for deciding on health and care services that suit Greater Manchester. It will also help in the long-term to ease pressure on hospitals while focusing on services in community that bring health and social care closer to home.

Integrated care in Greater Manchester will concentrate more on preventative work in the community, putting strategies in place to keep people well and as independent as possible.

NHS England has agreed all plans with the Greater Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), NHS providers and local councils to cement a place-based approach to join up health and social care.

This historic agreement will mean Greater Manchester can start making its own decisions and a transitional plan will come into effect from April 1 until full devolution of health and care services is in place by April 2016.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: "When I signed the deal with local councils here to devolve more power to Greater Manchester and to create a new elected mayor, I always hoped that a bigger say over healthcare would be part of the package. Things have happened even more swiftly than we had all hoped at the time, and now we have a landmark agreement to bring the local NHS and social care much more closely together."

Lord Peter Smith, chairman of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, said: "This is another defining moment in Greater Manchester's devolution journey. The scope and nature of this unprecedented agreement means we are proudly breaking new ground once more."