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Government publishes blueprint for joined-up care in White Paper


The UK government has published a White Paper setting out a blueprint to join up health and social care services as the key part of post-pandemic reform. The Department of Health and Social Care


(DHSC) said the White Paper, Integration and Innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all, will modernise the legal framework to make the system “fit for the future and put in place targeted improvements for the delivery of public health and social care”. The White Paper includes a package of


measures to deliver on specific needs in the social care sector. That package, said DHSC, will improve oversight and accountability in the delivery of services through new assurance and data sharing measures in social care, update the legal framework to enable person- centred models of hospital discharge, and introduce improved powers for the Secretary of State to directly make payments to adult social care providers where required. The measures will make integrated care


the default, reduce legal bureaucracy, and better support social care, public health and the NHS, it added.


to day operational independence of the NHS. The White Paper sets out the government’s


proposals for legislation, building on the extensive consultation that has already been undertaken by NHS England. A Bill will be laid before Parliament later in the year. The government intends to bring forward


The reforms will “enable the health and


care sector to use technology in a modern way, establishing it as a better platform to support staff and patient care, for example by improving the quality and availability of data across the health and care sector to enable systems to plan for the future care of their communities”. “It will support local health and care


systems to deliver higher quality care to their communities, in a way that is less legally bureaucratic, more accountable and more joined up, by bringing together the NHS, local government and partners together to tackle the needs of their communities as a whole.” The legislation will fold Monitor and the


NHS Trust Development Authority into NHS England, while maintaining the clinical and day


separate proposals later this year on reforming the financing of adult social care. “These changes will allow us to bottle the


innovation and ingenuity of our brilliant staff during the pandemic, where progress was made despite the legal framework, rather than because of it,” said Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured). In response, Labour questioned the


timing of the White Paper setting out a “reorganisation in the midst of the biggest crisis the NHS has ever faced”. Care England backed the publication of


the White Paper, calling it “a step towards real integration between health and social care”. The Alzheimer’s Society meanwhile said it


is “really encouraging to see the government’s commitment towards health and social care coming together to deliver more innovative, joined-up services in the future.”


Public Accounts Committee report finds government neglect left social care exposed at start of pandemic


The government’s focus on the NHS at the outset of the pandemic left social care providers “neglected” and staff “exposed” by a lack of PPE, according to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). In its Covid-19: Government procurement


and supply of PPE report, the PAC said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) provided NHS trusts with 1.9 billion items of PPE between March and July 2020, equivalent to 80 per cent of their estimated need. In contrast, it provided the adult social care


sector with 331m items of PPE, equivalent to ten per cent of its estimated need. This, the PAC said, left the social care


workforce in an “appalling situation” of caring for people with Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 without sufficient equipment to protect themselves from infection. The report notes that around 25,000


patients were discharged to care homes from hospitals, some without being tested


for Covid-19, even after it became clear that people could transmit the virus without having symptoms. “This contributed significantly to the deaths


in care homes during the first wave. Social care was only taken seriously after the high mortality rate in care homes became apparent.” The PAC said the pandemic has shown


the “tragic impact” of delaying much needed social care reform and treating the sector as the NHS’s “poor relation”. The report recommends DHSC should


write to the Committee by the end of April to explain how it will revise its emergency response plans so that they include who will be supported, how and when. “This must give appropriate weight to all


sectors of health and social care, as well as occupations outside these sectors which are also at risk,” it said. PAC chairwoman Meg Hillier added:


“Frontline workers were left without adequate March 2021 • www.thecarehomeenvironment.com


supplies, risking their own and their families’ lives to provide treatment and care. “We’re at a dangerous new phase of the pandemic, in our third national lockdown with no defined end in sight. The government needs to acknowledge the errors and be better prepared.”


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