CONTROVERSIAL plans for the future of health and social care services across Sussex are the subject of a public event.

Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has organised the session to give people a chance to learn more about what is being worked on over the next five years.

The Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) is made up of 24 organisations across the region, including CCGs, councils and hospitals.

The aim is for them to all work better together to improve health and social care for local people.

However STPs have met with criticism around the country, with campaigners warning of potential cuts in services and jobs.

Sussex Defend the NHS has already warned NHS budgets will be slashed by hundreds of millions of pounds and questions how already under-pressure services will be able to cope with more cuts.

Monday’s event at the Brighthelm Centre in North Road, Brighton, from 10.30am is part of the CCG’s ongoing Big Health and Care Conversation.

It has been set up with the support of the city council, Brighton and Hove Healthwatch and Sussex Partnership NHS Trust.

CCG clinical chairman David Supple said: “This is first time that all the organisations have worked together in this way and it gives us an opportunity to bring about significant improvements in health and care over the next five years.

“It is a way of making sure the plans of all the partners across the area are joined up and working together and aims to ensure that no part of the health and care system operates in isolation.

“We know that what happens in GP surgeries, for example, impacts on social care, which also impacts on hospital wards and so on.

“With services feeling the strain, working together will give our nurses, doctors and care staff the best chance of success.

“We recognise that we have not engaged enough with local people about the wider STP and what it aims to do so we hope people will be able to attend this event.”

People who want to attend are asked to book in advance online at eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-big-stp-conversation-sustainability-and-transformation-partnership-11-sept-17-tickets-36107258783.

However anyone who has not booked will be able to turn up on the day if spaces are still available.

Sussex Defend the NHS has organised a protest and rally in Brighton at the start of the Labour Party conference on September 24.

It will feature Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Brighton MPs Caroline Lucas and Lloyd Russell-Moyle.