Patients to receive better care as NHS and social care systems link up

Government’s new Integration White Paper (opens new window) promises to deliver better, more joined-up care under new plans announced today to improve the links between health and social care.

The Integration White Paper sets out some of the ways health and care systems will draw on the resources and skills across the NHS and local government to better meet the needs of communities, reduce waiting lists and help level up healthcare across the country.

The plans set out in the white paper will ensure care is more personalised and accessible and remove the burdens on patients, such as linking GPs with wider forms of community support – such as social prescribing – could allow care to be more personalised which would help reduce the need for people to have more expensive, invasive medical treatment.

This is the next step in delivering the government’s promise of a health and social care system fit for the future.

Jeremy Porteus, CEO of Housing LIN, commented:

’The Housing LIN welcomes the government’s White Paper on Integration. We are pleased to see the emphasis on place and references to housing, specifically: “we also want to ensure places ‘think housing and community’ when they develop local partnerships and plan and deliver health and care services.” We must ensure that the integrated systems provide the foundations for these strategic connections to be built and sustained.

The Housing LIN was formerly part of the Department of Health’s Integrated Care Network so we know that it’s not just about ‘vertical’ integration within the NHS but also ‘horizontal’ integration across wider housing and care economies to get better outcomes for local populations.'