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Health and wellbeing boards are crucial to integrated care delivery, says Simon Morioka We all know that every organisation has its own culture, practices and infrastructure – this can make it difficult to join up services when it comes to health and social care. Having shared objectives to ensuring the best care for a patient is a good start, but we know that taking the extra step towards genuinely co-producing services and communicating more effectively can have a dramatic and positive impact on outcomes. Health and wellbeing boards are crucial to delivering this transformation. A quiet revolution within the Health and Social Care Act, the boards provide the one vital place where the right people come together with a view across the whole and a remit to make change. The importance of bringing health and social care services together or integrating care is an area of almost complete political agreement - and the benefits have been widely recognised and reported. Our work at PPL on People Powered Health highlighted that building on the concept of co-production, in which solutions are designed and delivered with the patient, benefits them and reduces costs to the health and social care sector. This work drew on six projects around the UK that put patients at the centre of their own care. It demonstrated a compelling case for change – you get better quality outcomes and you reduce demands in the system by better engaging patients and service users. But there are challenges to overcome before integrated care is a reality across the UK. The Local Government Association (LGA) has appointed Integrating Care to develop a practical support package for local authority and health leaders. This support will enable local authorities and their NHS partners to understand the impact of different integrated care models in terms of cost and service user journey, supporting plans to bring health and social care services together and help make integrated care a reality. As a senior adviser with Integrating Care, I will work with health and wellbeing boards across the country to share examples of how integrated care is delivering results, and to create a community of organisations committed to making fundamental changes. The partners for this project include NHS England, ADASS, ADCS, Public Health England, Monitor and the NHS Confederation. The work we are doing with the LGA and its partners is about providing practical help to identify opportunities, overcome barriers and to put in place the new ways of working that promise the biggest improvements. At the heart of this work is the recognition that many local authorities have made good progress in bringing services together. Learning from what has been achieved and making it the norm is our best chance of meeting the challenges ahead. Simon Morioka is managing director at PPL and senior adviser at Integrating Care

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Health and wellbeing boards crucial to integrated care delivery

By Simon Morioka | 17 September 2013

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