This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Single ring-fenced budgets for health and social care by 2020
Options for integrated commissioning: Beyond Barker, by The Kings Fund follows recommendations made by the Independent Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England, chaired by Kate Barker which criticised the fragmentation of health and social care services.
The report recommends that the Department of Health should replace multiple single models with a clear national policy framework and a national budget for social care by 2020. This would maintain current structures and develop local agreements, building on existing initiatives such as the Better Care Fund.
Richard Humphries, assistant director of policy at The King’s Fund, and the lead author of the report said: “As the Barker Commission set out, the case for change is overwhelming. Commissioning is more fragmented than ever, at a time when the imperative is to integrate around the needs of an ageing population with a mixture of conditions that defy service boundaries.
“Forty years of attempting to align health and social care leave us under no illusion about the difficulty of the journey to integrated commissioning, but with a consensus on the necessity of integrating care, there has never been a better time to make it happen.”
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