Care trusts only one option, says Milburn

Alan Milburn has insisted that care trusts are
just one possible route for closer working between health and
social services.

Representatives of primary care
trusts detected a shift in emphasis in the government’s policy on
care trusts during a meeting with the health secretary last
week.

Many
social service departments and PCTs had assumed they would have to
merge to create care trusts even if it was opposed
locally.

Gerald
Wistow, chairperson of Hartlepool PCT and director of the Nuffield
Institute for Health at Leeds University said after the meeting:
“There seemed to be more emphasis on joint appointments of PCT
chief executives and social services directors as an acceptable
route. Most came out of the meeting believing that the decision on
a care trust would be left at a local level.” A Department of
Health spokesperson said Milburn had always said that care trusts
were only one option.