Welsh chiefs discuss partnership worries

Council leaders in Wales have called for local authorities to take charge of community and public health to deliver the assembly government’s plans to shift care from acute to preventive services.

The call was one of the clearest messages to come out of consultations by the Social Services Improvement Agency across  Wales in the autumn.

Attended by 150 service directors, council chief executives, councillors and senior managers, the events identified concerns about how existing health and social care partnerships were working.

The report into the consultation said a block on progress was local health boards and hospital trusts transferring functions to councils without the funding. But delegates said that giving councils responsibility for public and community health would ensure funding and thereby help shift resources to prevention.