Table 1
Key policy initiatives and legislation relating in integrated health and social care in England between 2010 and 2014.
| YEAR | TITLE | OVERVIEW |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Health & Social Care Act 2012 | Established local health and wellbeing boards in each local authority area, with a duty to encourage the integrated commissioning of health and social care services. Required clinical commissioning groups to promote integration where this would improve quality or reduce inequalities. |
| 2013 | Integrated Care: Our Shared Commitment | The Department of Health and twelve national partners made a commitment for urgent and sustained action with an ambition to make joined-up and coordinated health and care the norm by 2018. |
| 2013 | Integrated Care and Support Pioneers | Twenty five local areas were selected to pilot new ways of working to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care for people whose needs are met from both NHS and local authority services. |
| 2013 | Better Care Fund | This national initiative required clinical commissioning groups and local authorities to pool a minimum of £3.8 billion to promote integrated working, overseen by local health and wellbeing boards |
| 2014 | Care Act 2014 | Required local authorities to promote integration where this would promote wellbeing, improve quality, or prevent care needs from developing |
| 2014 | Five Year Forward View | Called for a ‘radical upgrade’ in prevention and public health; models of care which shift care from hospitals to settings closer to people’s homes. Introduced seven new models of care based around the Five Year Forward View to be piloted at 50 ‘vanguard’ sites |
Table 2
Key policy initiatives and legislation relating in integrated health and social care in England between 2015 and 2020.
| YEAR | TITLE | OVERVIEW |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015: | Introduced a commitment to integrate health and social care services across England by 2020 and required local areas to submit plans by April 2017 demonstrating how they would achieve this |
| 2015 | Sustainability and Transformation Plans | Local health bodies were required to draw up plans to improve services and finances over the five years to March 2021 around identified ‘footprints’. There was a subsequent shift in focus from the ‘Plan’ to the ‘Partnerships’ |
| 2018 | Integrated care systems | Advanced forms of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships in which the local NHS organisations are awarded greater autonomy over use of available funding and managing the quality of their health care services. National bodies only assure system level plans rather than those of individual organisations. Local areas applied for this status. |
| 2019 | NHS Long Term Plan | Committed to the development of Integrated Care Systems in every area of England by 2021. |
| 2019 | Primary Care Networks | Individual general practices can establish or join PCNs covering populations of between 30,000 to 50,000 to integrate primary care services around local communities and collaborate with other relevant agencies [including social care] |