Concerns voiced over plans for care trusts to be included in adult green paper

Local government leaders have warned ministers not to force
councils and health bodies together, following reports that
proposals for care trusts would be included in the adult green
paper, writes Mithran Samuel.

With the government reportedly considering imposing a duty on
councils and the NHS to set up care trusts to commission adult
services, the Local Government Association said compulsion was
unnecessary.

David Rogers, chair of the community well-being board, said:
“Local government and health are already working together
successfully to provide integrated care services, outside a
statutory model…It is not necessary for care trusts to be
made statutory to integrate social care services.”

Hunter: Local flexibility needed

Association of Directors of Social Services president Tony
Hunter also called for local flexibility.

He said: “We are looking for a strong vision [in the green
paper], very clear outcomes and strong performance management
frameworks, but with the mechanisms [to deliver these] left to
localities.”

It was reported last month that the green paper would propose a
statutory duty on councils and primary care trusts to co-operate in
care trusts that would commission but not provide services.

Existing care trusts, which were introduced on a voluntary basis
by the Health and Social Care Act 2001, can both commission and
provide services, though only eight have been set up so far.

Rogers said the LGA opposed dividing commissioning from
provision, adding: “It could reduce the range of providers
and damage the possibility of providing choice in social
care.”

It has also emerged that the green paper, which had been
expected this month, will be published in February, reportedly
because the government wants it to tie-in with other initiatives on
adult services.