Former Conservative cabinet minister Stephen Dorrell will help Birmingham and Solihull's social and health services save taxpayers millions and avoid brutal cuts by working together.
Mr Dorrell, who was Health Secretary from 1995 to 1997 and more recently chaired the House of Commons health select committee, will reshape the social care services in the city over the next five years.
The NHS and council social services have agreed to team up as both face massive increases in demand as a result of the ageing population, as well as cuts in funding.
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Serious problems like bed-blocking, where patients cannot be discharged from costly hospital beds because there is no social care at home, will be looked at.
Birmingham City Council alone hopes to slash its social care bill by £60 million a year by 2019 through joint-working with the NHS.
Mr Dorrell will chair an independent board which will advise and oversee the partnership as it develops over the next five years.
He said: "I am flattered and delighted to have been asked to perform this role.
"I have known both Birmingham and Solihull all my life and, throughout that time, I have seen great changes in the expectations and quality of life of the people who live here.
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"But, despite undoubted progress, our social objectives have not always been met and the fruits of progress have not always been fairly shared.
"Across both Birmingham and Solihull, we need to recognise and celebrate our successes but we also need to understand why health inequalities still persist and what we can do about them.
"This is not simply a matter of public service efficiency although that is certainly part of the story. More importantly, it is about reshaping public services to support successful and sustainable local communities."
The new board will set the strategy and push the Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
As well as looking at existing services, they will consider the role of prevention services such as the successful Be Active fitness scheme.
Birmingham City Council chief executive Mark Rogers, who is also leading the project, said: "The key aspect of Stephen's role will be to enable and ensure a strong, sustainable and productive partnership ethos and practice across the local system so that the most challenging reforms ever required can be successfully implemented.
"It is well understood we need to transform a broken health and social care system with some urgency and there is a consensus among the partners across Birmingham and Solihull that Stephen's experience, authority and connections will be a major asset as we set out to deliver a revolution in prevention, care, quality and the use of significantly constrained resources."