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• Providers could be overwhelmed, Wanless warns

Local government leaders have raised major concerns about the implications of the Wanless review of health and social care in Wales, writes Alex Dobson.

In their initial response to the Wanless review, the Welsh Local Government Association detailed fears about recommendations concerning the redesigning of services and the links between health and social care.

Derek Wanless’s review, published earlier this month, found that increasing demand for care could overwhelm providers unless health and social care services were modernised and brought closer together.

But the WLGA’s report warned that Wanless’s recommendations could be the precursors to the kind of structural changes to health and social care that are occurring in England.

Their fears came despite reassurances from Welsh ministers over the past month that their emphasis is on integrated thinking, not structural change.

The WLGA said it is important to ensure that action to break down the barriers between health and social care systems “does not weaken the links and capacity for a seamless service between social care and other local government services such as education, housing, environmental services and leisure, which can deliver prevention and earlier intervention and a holistic approach to individual needs”.

It raised concerns about an over-emphasis on a seamless approach that may encourage local health boards and local authorities in the principality to focus on an agenda for change that is very narrow.

“If the objectives from the recent health reforms are to be achieved and the pressures on acute hospital services reduced, we must ensure that health and well-being strategies are more than health and social care plans,” it warned.

Overall, however, the report gave a broad welcome to many of the recommendations contained in the review, and called for the WLGA to be fully involved in the operational detail of the Welsh assembly’s long-term intentions on how best to implement the review’s findings. A formal response to the Wanless review from the Welsh assembly is expected in the autumn.