Funding differences may block integration, conference told

The way health and social care is funded is the central problem
in ensuring the services are integrated, according to a health
policy analyst from the Royal College of Nursing,
writes Katie Leason.

Health and social care are funded from two different streams
– with health via central taxation and social care often
means tested – and “bringing these two together is going to
be the critical challenge in integrating health and social care”,
Helen Caulfield told a London conference.

She added that it is currently “unclear” as to how bringing
together health and social care will make a difference to the
public.

Moving towards integration with social care is “problematic” for
staff on top of other structural changes, and it is difficult to
see how a true partnership between health, social care and
independent providers can be achieved, said Caulfield.

Care trusts have not taken off in the way that the government
had hoped, she added, with enormous transaction costs involved in
producing a care trust, and no additional government funding.