19.03.13
Integrated health and housing ‘imperative’ for Care Bill
The Government has not fully thought through the implications of its social care reforms, a new report from the Joint Committee on Draft Care & Support Bill warns.
Greater integration with health and housing will be vital to ensure the success of the reforms, as well as a focus on prevention and early intervention.
The report calls for a nationwide campaign to educate people about the need to pay for their own care, as well as information and advice to help them plan their finances accordingly.
New powers should mandate joint budgets and commissioning across health, care and housing, the committee suggests. There should also be an end to ‘contracting by the minute’, new legal rights should be introduced for young carers and stronger measures on safeguarding.
More common training could be provided for care staff, who often have to work between the two sectors.
Former care minister Paul Burstow MP, chair of the committee, said: “We need care and support to be more focused on prevention and more joined up with health and housing. There is much in the government’s draft Bill to welcome; it cuts through a complex web of arcane legislation that people struggle with. But there is room for improvement.
“The Government must take stock of its funding for adult care and support and think seriously about whether the transformation we all want to see can truly be delivered without greater resources.
“There is a growing imperative to join-up services so they fit around people's lives and make the best use of resources. The whole system must shift its emphasis away from crises and towards prevention and early intervention. The draft Bill helps, but we believe it could do more.”
National Housing Federation director Gill Payne said: “We need a care system that supports people to live independently by keeping them in their community and delivering care and support in their home. Specialist and adapted housing is an integral part of local social care and health services, keeping people out of hospital and residential care.
“We urge the Government to adopt these proposals when the Care and Support Bill is introduced later this year.”
Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of Turning Point and a member of NHE’s editorial board, supported the reports recommendations.
He said: “If you want integrated and preventative services you need to change the way you commission for them.
“What we need is the establishment of one budget from the top, which drives behaviours at the bottom. This is integral to ensuring the shift in emphasis from crises and towards prevention and early intervention which the report calls for.”
National Voices’ Policy Adviser, Laura Robinson, added: “Everyone deserves to be treated with honesty if things go wrong. This should be the case whether it happens in the health system or the social care system. We are pleased to see that today’s report extends the groundswell of voices calling for a legal duty of candour.”
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN, said: “Social care and health care must work together to ensure that people receive the best care in the best setting, and nurses play a vital role in making sure this happens.
“Nursing staff work in both health and social care and see the consequences when systems are not properly integrated. The delays this can cause often results in patients receiving care in the wrong settings. Staff can find themselves filling out time-consuming and duplicated forms when patients are being discharged and this is often because different areas of care are disjointed.
“The draft Care and Support Bill is a long overdue step in the right direction and it is important now that the feedback of the RCN and other organisations is used to deliver a health and social care system which is fit for the future.”
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