Health and Social Care integration at critical juncture

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) have published a joint-discussion document on the issue of social care integration.

‘The Case for Tomorrow: Facing the Beyond’, seeks to question the role of government in implementing care reform, focusing not only on the Dilnot Commission and upcoming White Paper, but also the controversial Health and Social Care Bill and also the Law Commission’s approach to social care law.

ADASS recognises several key issues as being crucial to answering the problem of integration, including the need to establish a more practical care insurance market, the implementation of personal budgets, the investment in community-based health and social care, provision for dementia sufferers, and how legislation can tackle ageism.

Commenting on the document, ADASS President Peter Hay addressed concerns that the Health and Social Care Bill may prove detrimental to service integration:

‘We have heard many calls for better integration between health and care from many politicians over recent months. ADASS continues to share frustrations at the current state of integration: we haven’t weakened in our aspirations to improve the situation. ADASS will call for a greater level of debate on how we reach our shared ambition of strengthened and better care in our communities. And a health care system that drives out the inequalities in outcomes that the Bill rightly challenges.’

Demographic change is singled out by the document as being the greatest challenge to care sector productivity, with ADASS predicting a 146% increase over two decades in the number of people in England aged 90 and over.

The Association also warns that the country is ‘experiencing the most profound change in public sector finances and resources since the Second World War’ and that, sue to financial pressures ‘the provision of decent quality of care is becoming more and more difficult’.

Click on the link below to view the ‘Case for Tomorrow: Facing the Beyond’ document in full.