The Government must detail a costed 10-year plan to help shore up the struggling social care system, MPs have said.
A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised Whitehall for lacking an 'effective overall strategy or plan to achieve its long-held aim’ of integrating health and social care.
The report said there was ‘widespread consensus’ that integration and joint working was the right way forward for the health and social care system.
However, the PAC concluded there was ‘no realistic prospect of progress'.
PAC chair Meg Hillier said: ‘The time for warm words and wishful thinking is over.
'If Government is serious about delivering the benefits of integrated health and social care it must act to make it happen.
‘Without this action the array of outputs over the past two decades – consultations, reviews, Government papers – will never be matched by improved outcomes for service users.’
Ms Hillier recommended that Whitehall adopt a costed 10-year plan for social care to go alongside its 10-year plan for the NHS.
She urged the Government to ‘step up efforts’ to break down barriers to integration across the country, adding: ‘Its departments and agencies need to work together more effectively to support the rollout of best practice, as well as the leadership necessary to drive change at local level.
‘There remains a wide gap in pay and career structure between people who work in the NHS and those in social care, whose workforce suffers from low pay and low esteem.
‘It is vital that the Government’s workforce plan addresses these concerns as a positive step towards achieving its aim of integrating health and social care.’
Chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, said: ‘If we are to deliver the most effective integration between health and social care possible it’s essential that funding for both health services and social care is secured on a long-term basis.'