Health and social care pulled in different directions

Social care and health are being pulled in different directions
by conflicting target regimes, according to a social services
director at Community Care Live today, writes Mithran
Samuel.

John Beer, executive director of health and social care at
Southampton Council, said councils and primary care trusts faced
different incentives, hampering joint working.

Speaking at a session on joint working in public health, he
said: “Our PCT lost a star because it didn’t get enough
people to quit smoking. Why didn’t the local authority get
penalised for that as well?”

He added: “If you look at what the barriers are [to joint
working] – it’s people having different
drivers.”

Beer said the government’s public health plans remained
too focused on the NHS, at the expense of councils.