Andy
Burnham is to attend Health+Care 2013 and should ensure lively debate
about resources and future direction. Photograph: Christopher Thomond
for the Guardian
The case for health and social care integration has been made
and its advocates are growing – but there is a gap between policy and
practice. Despite the government's enthusiasm for integration, it is yet
to happen on the frontline.
Our health and social care system needs to change. As the proportion of the population moving into old age grows, the NHS and adult social services will struggle to meet the needs of everyone that require it. The challenge is to do more, for more people, with less resources.
The introduction of the Health and Social Care Act gave us the basic framework to achieve this. If implemented successfully and rationally, clinically-led commissioning and Health and Wellbeing Boards have the potential to improve access, reduce waste, improve experience and deliver better patient outcomes. In these straitened times it's no surprise the government wants rapid implementation, at a great scale.
Local authorities, primary and secondary care providers and clinical commissioners are striving to implement the new system, but uncertainties continue over how to best join up services.
A key part of the challenge lies in defining integrated care and recognising which changes would drive efficiency and improve patient experience the most. The last thing health and social care need is more disruption and reorganisation for little gain. Integration aims to bring together commissioning, access, assessment and delivery. It can include a wide array of partners such as councils, CCGs, Health and Wellbeing Boards, acute trusts, community trusts, mental health trusts, independent providers and the voluntary sector.
What's more, there are many different ways of achieving integration, from some modest multi-agency working through to creating one governance structure, with one budget and one group of staff working to a single set of priorities and objectives.
Health Minister Norman Lamb is the driving force for integration within government and has outlined the NHS Commissioning Board's obligation to drive integration "at scale and with pace from April 2013". Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham recently joined the debate calling for a new whole-person approach to care, and suggesting that the multi-disciplinary HWBs should become the key commissioning bodies.
But it will take more than a legislative push for integration to be successfully implemented.
Cultural challenges persist and there are disincentives in the system, not least contrasting funding systems.
There are pioneers scattered around the country who are striving to overcome the hurdles and re-define organisational and budgetary structures to deliver more seamless services for patients and service users.
Policy will only get you so far. One of the biggest obstacles is that, to date, there have been few chances for all the visionaries, pioneers, advisers and aspirants from across the professional boundaries to showcase what is working – and what remains to be done. This is the rationale behind the launch of Health+Care, a series of four co-located healthcare conferences.
The programme will include the lessons from Torbay and Blackburn – two of the most advanced examples of integration; the Department of Health's integration lead will outline the steps required for progress, as will leading academics; Kent's massive and "live" health and social care integration programme will be outlined; and, the general role of HWBs will be examined.
And, of course, it's not just about integrated care. While we need the efficiency of joined up services, we also need to promote more choice and control among the users of those services.
If people can "own" their care, make informed choices that suit them, keep their independence while living in their own home, then the self-management of their health and wellbeing will improve, reduce and delay the escalation of service need. Keeping people out of hospital and long-term residential care is another key challenge for the health and social care system, and Health+Care's events on personalisation, dementia care, home care and residential care will help to show the way.
Speakers will examine how the system can embrace real personalisation beyond just the distribution of personal budgets and the role of commissioners in enabling it. Leading experts will also examine the expansion of personal budgets from social care into primary care. With dementia, home and residential care, leading figures will examine how to commission and implement patient-centred care, raise quality and drive efficiency.
Speakers include Dementia tsar Professor Alistair Burns, Andrea Sutcliffe, CEO of SCIE, and Jane Ashcroft, CEO of Anchor Trust, Roger Booker, CEO of Sevacare, Martin Green, chair of ECCA, and Bridget Warr, CEO of UKHCA.
Politicians, including Norman Lamb, Paul Burstow and Andy Burnham, will ensure lively debate about resources and future direction.
I believe these events – and the forum they provide – are a major step towards solving the challenge of how we do more with less with public services and bring a shared vision to health and social care.
Attendance at Health+Care 2013 is free for qualifying delegates and interested parties will be able to register their attendance. Join the debate on social media using #healthpluscare.
Mike Broad is the programme director of Health+Care 2013. He is also the group editor of Hospital Doctor, the online magazine for NHS consultants, and Social Care Worker, the online magazine for social care professionals
This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.
Source: Guardian
Research: Acne No More
Our health and social care system needs to change. As the proportion of the population moving into old age grows, the NHS and adult social services will struggle to meet the needs of everyone that require it. The challenge is to do more, for more people, with less resources.
The introduction of the Health and Social Care Act gave us the basic framework to achieve this. If implemented successfully and rationally, clinically-led commissioning and Health and Wellbeing Boards have the potential to improve access, reduce waste, improve experience and deliver better patient outcomes. In these straitened times it's no surprise the government wants rapid implementation, at a great scale.
Local authorities, primary and secondary care providers and clinical commissioners are striving to implement the new system, but uncertainties continue over how to best join up services.
A key part of the challenge lies in defining integrated care and recognising which changes would drive efficiency and improve patient experience the most. The last thing health and social care need is more disruption and reorganisation for little gain. Integration aims to bring together commissioning, access, assessment and delivery. It can include a wide array of partners such as councils, CCGs, Health and Wellbeing Boards, acute trusts, community trusts, mental health trusts, independent providers and the voluntary sector.
What's more, there are many different ways of achieving integration, from some modest multi-agency working through to creating one governance structure, with one budget and one group of staff working to a single set of priorities and objectives.
Health Minister Norman Lamb is the driving force for integration within government and has outlined the NHS Commissioning Board's obligation to drive integration "at scale and with pace from April 2013". Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham recently joined the debate calling for a new whole-person approach to care, and suggesting that the multi-disciplinary HWBs should become the key commissioning bodies.
But it will take more than a legislative push for integration to be successfully implemented.
Cultural challenges persist and there are disincentives in the system, not least contrasting funding systems.
There are pioneers scattered around the country who are striving to overcome the hurdles and re-define organisational and budgetary structures to deliver more seamless services for patients and service users.
Policy will only get you so far. One of the biggest obstacles is that, to date, there have been few chances for all the visionaries, pioneers, advisers and aspirants from across the professional boundaries to showcase what is working – and what remains to be done. This is the rationale behind the launch of Health+Care, a series of four co-located healthcare conferences.
The programme will include the lessons from Torbay and Blackburn – two of the most advanced examples of integration; the Department of Health's integration lead will outline the steps required for progress, as will leading academics; Kent's massive and "live" health and social care integration programme will be outlined; and, the general role of HWBs will be examined.
And, of course, it's not just about integrated care. While we need the efficiency of joined up services, we also need to promote more choice and control among the users of those services.
If people can "own" their care, make informed choices that suit them, keep their independence while living in their own home, then the self-management of their health and wellbeing will improve, reduce and delay the escalation of service need. Keeping people out of hospital and long-term residential care is another key challenge for the health and social care system, and Health+Care's events on personalisation, dementia care, home care and residential care will help to show the way.
Speakers will examine how the system can embrace real personalisation beyond just the distribution of personal budgets and the role of commissioners in enabling it. Leading experts will also examine the expansion of personal budgets from social care into primary care. With dementia, home and residential care, leading figures will examine how to commission and implement patient-centred care, raise quality and drive efficiency.
Speakers include Dementia tsar Professor Alistair Burns, Andrea Sutcliffe, CEO of SCIE, and Jane Ashcroft, CEO of Anchor Trust, Roger Booker, CEO of Sevacare, Martin Green, chair of ECCA, and Bridget Warr, CEO of UKHCA.
Politicians, including Norman Lamb, Paul Burstow and Andy Burnham, will ensure lively debate about resources and future direction.
I believe these events – and the forum they provide – are a major step towards solving the challenge of how we do more with less with public services and bring a shared vision to health and social care.
Attendance at Health+Care 2013 is free for qualifying delegates and interested parties will be able to register their attendance. Join the debate on social media using #healthpluscare.
Mike Broad is the programme director of Health+Care 2013. He is also the group editor of Hospital Doctor, the online magazine for NHS consultants, and Social Care Worker, the online magazine for social care professionals
This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.
Source: Guardian
Research: Acne No More
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