MPs call for better agency co-ordination

Vulnerable people are being badly let down
because public agencies fail to co-ordinate their activities
properly, the chairperson of the House of Commons committee of
public accounts said last week.

Edward
Leigh spoke as the committee published its report into how the
Cabinet Office is promoting better joint working between public,
voluntary and private sector organisations involved in delivering
public services.

“If
social services and the NHS got their collective act together, for
example, they could combat delays in discharging the elderly from
hospital,” he said. “This would reduce the stress and uncertainty
for patients and release hundreds of thousands of hospital bed days
back into circulation.”

Better Public Services Through
Joint Working,
released last week, concludes that departments can save money by
working together by “removing overlap and duplication in service
delivery and by not reinventing the wheel”.

It
finds that joint working can take a variety of forms, from
establishing new organisations which bring together the
responsibilities of two departments, to a dedicated single unit
such as Sure Start.

–
Better Public Services Through Joint Working is available
from, www.publications.parliament.uk