Jones urges penalty fines for NHS trusts

The NHS should face penalties if it fails to transfer resources from acute to community care, Association of Directors of Social Services president Julie Jones said last week.

After the government’s pledge in the health and social care white paper to performance-manage primary care trusts on shifting resources into community settings, Jones said there should be “real consequences for not delivering”.

She told a conference on the white paper that PCTs should face a similar fate to councils, which had faced fines for hospital bed blocking.

Mencap chief executive Jo Williams said NHS and social care commissioners were increasingly placing people with learning difficulties into institutional care to deal with budget shortfalls.

“People are dealing with tight budgets. Putting people back into institutional care achieves economies of scale.”