Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to promote integrated care in the NHS.
Alistair Burt
In 2014, NHS England published the Five Year Forward View, which included an account of five new care models designed to promote integrated service provision. 50 Vanguard sites are currently implementing a new care model, with the support of NHS England and the Department, and with a view to spreading lessons and best practice throughout the health system.
In order to deliver the best outcomes for service users, integration within the National Health Service must be accompanied by integration with social care. The Better Care Fund (BCF), first implemented in 2015/16, is continuing in 2016/17 and requires local government and the NHS to create pooled budgets in every area in England, bringing local leaders and clinical experts together to plan how to spend a portion of their shared resources to provide a more integrated health and care system for local people.
The BCF has laid the foundation for integration across the country, but the Government wants to go further, faster. The Autumn 2016 Spending Review set out the ambition that every area in England should integrate health and social care by 2020, with a plan for this in place by 2017. Achieving better integration within the NHS will be a key element of the broader ambition to integrate across the health and care system as a whole.
