Social care fund not alleviating pressure on hospitals, NAO says

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report outlining that there is no ‘compelling evidence’ that the Better Care Fund has eased financial and spatial pressure in NHS hospitals.

The Better Care Fund, a £5.3 billion money pot introduced to help councils invest in services to keep patients out of hospitals, was brought in in 2013. It was hoped the fund would generate a savings of around £500 million in its first year by reducing the demand for costly hospital care.

However, according to the NAO, the number of emergency hospital admissions has risen, rather than gone down; and the number of people stuck in hospital because they have no suitable care package available to them in the community has also risen.

Specifically, the NAO cited that: the number of emergency hospital admissions increased by 106,000 and the number of delayed transfers of care cases went up by 185,000.

Sir Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “Integrating the health and social care sectors is a significant challenge in normal times, let alone times when both sectors are under such severe pressure. So far, benefits have fallen far short of plans, despite much effort. It will be important to learn from the over-optimism of such plans when implementing the much larger NHS sustainability and transformation plans.

“The Departments do not yet have the evidence to show that they can deliver their commitment to integrated services by 2020, at the same time as meeting existing pressures on the health and social care systems.”

Meanwhile a spokesman for NHS England said: "Joining up local NHS and council services may be worthwhile, but is not by itself a silver-bullet solution to wider pressures on health and social care."