The government was warned to keep its hands off social services and drop the idea of integration with the health service by Local Government Association chairperson Sir Jeremy Beecham earlier this week.

Addressing the LGA annual conference in Bournemouth he said: "The notion that you can ring-fence social care expenditure and direct the provision of services from Whitehall, mediated by quangos appointed by and accountable to government ministers, would be both unworkable, and in terms of local democracy completely unacceptable."

In the wake of last week's Audit Commission report into health and social care services for older people, Beecham earlier argued that their care was best served by multi-disciplinary teams and not "another round of costly and bureaucratic service restructuring".

A move towards multi-disciplinary teams is happening with Herefordshire Council. Most of its adult team social workers are to be outposted to primary care settings under primary care trust arrangements. Social workers will be relocated to community hospitals and GP practices, although they will still be line-managed within social services.

The primary care trust, which goes live in October, will be responsible for managing integrated mental health services of both health and social services. However, social services will be the lead agency for integrated learning difficulty services.

Meanwhile, Kent Council is planning to bring public and community health services under the control of its social services department in a bid to free up hospital beds.