TOP of the agenda at the latest Health and Wellbeing Board was the discussion about the new 'Locality Plan' which seeks to address a £75.6 million future financial gap. 

This plan seeks to redefine the borough's approach to health and social care in the coming years by integrating a number of services. 

By designing this new approach the council is seeking to gain a £27 million investment from the Greater Manchester Transformation Fund (GMTF). 

David Boulger, a council officer, delivered a report to the Bury Council board this evening at the town hall. 

He said the projected financial gap does not just take into account government cuts but a variety of other factors such as inflation and projected demand. 

Mr Boulger explained the rethink about how services were delivered in the borough is also driven by the fact the population of Bury becomes ill 'far too early'. Compared to the rest of the country, Bury and the rest of Greater Manchester, are 'outliers'. 

For example, nationally, the healthy life expectancy for a woman is 64.1 years. In Bury it is 62.1 years. For a man nationally, it is 63.4 years, in Bury it is 60.6 years. 

In the most deprived areas of Bury these expected healthy years drop to 54.2 years for women and 53.1 years for men. 

This combined with people living longer means a small group are using most of the resources available for health and social care. 

Mr Boulger said: "What we have is a population that is ill for a significant proportion of their lives. They are still getting ill at the same point they did 30 or 40 years ago."

By combining services offered by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with services offered by the Council, it is hoped 'wellness' can be promoted borough wide keeping people out of hospitals and care and instead in their own homes

This plan has been submitted to the GMTF and a decision is expected by July 12. 

This investment is projected to help close the gap and through the work together of all services, not just health, for example police, there could be surplus by 2020.