The National Audit Office has concluded that the government’s flagship initiative to integrate health and social care is “over-optimistic” and is not delivering the expected benefits.
Three health charities have said that plugging a £1.9bn social care funding gap is a more urgent priority than boosting funding for the NHS in this month’s Autumn Statement.
Cuts to adult social care have left the system increasingly unable to meet the needs of the older people who depend on it, with the funding gap set to reach at least £2.8bn by the end of the decade,...
Radical action is needed to tackle delays in discharging older patients from hospital and stop the costs adding further strain to the financial sustainability of both the NHS and local government,...
A joint CIPFA-HFMA survey has found that opportunities presented by the Better Care Fund have been embraced enthusiastically. However, it needs clearer and simpler governance and monitoring...
The health and care sector is demanding urgent Whitehall talks over what it says is a funding crisis despite Chancellor George Osborne authorising council tax increases to pay for provision.
The flagship government project to bring health and social care funding together is being hindered by red tape that must be tackled if services are to be integrated, a CIPFA report has found.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has warned that the government’s use of the new burdens doctrine, which is intended to ensure councils are not left out of pocket, “fails to reflect reality...
Integration of health and social care will require significant additional upfront funding to be successful, and the reform is not likely to lead to savings in the short-term, an analysis by CIPFA has...
Much of the £22bn efficiency savings projected in the NHS Five Year Forward View is expected to come from the successful integration of health and social care services, a senior NHS figure has...
Devolution of powers and budgets from central government is an essential driver for integrating public services at the local level, writes Lord Kerslake
The current commissioning system for health and social care is “unsustainable” and councils and NHS clinical commissioning groups should be tasked with developing local integration plans from 2017, a...
The government’s flagship Better Care Fund should be extended quickly so that both local authorities and the NHS can plan further integration of spending, an expert has said.
Three-quarters of outgoing MPs support the ringfencing of adult social care funding in the next parliament, a poll by the Local Government Association has found.
Councils have been warned that plans to integrate health and care spending will place additional pressures on ‘ineffective’ local authority scrutiny arrangements.
With huge changes to NHS structures and culture, it’s an exciting time to be working in health policy. Nigel Edwards, the new chief executive of the Nuffield Trust thinktank, talks to PF about...
