Today the Department of Health has published the NHS Ten-Year Plan, called Fit For The Future, which sets out the health service's vision and priorities over the next decade.
Below, the County Councils Network responds to the publication.
Cllr Martin Tett, Adult Social Care Spokesperson for the County Councils Network, said:
“A more preventive and community-orientated approach to health and care is the right one, but local authorities must be fully involved and embedded within Neighbourhood Health Services, including their public health functions, if the government is to realise its aims of this ten-year plan. In addition, councils have been delivering many of these personalised, prevention-focused care approaches for years in both adult and children’s social care and their learning could be valuable for this NHS ten-year plan.
“It is vital that the initial findings of the Independent Commission for Social Care are reported quickly next year to ensure they feed strategically into what the government hopes is a seismic change for the NHS. Health and care are two sides of the same coin and if government wants to focus on prevention rather than crisis, it must address many of the challenges within the social care system.
“The present reorganisation of Integrated Care Systems (ICS) must ensure that they are better aligned with the boundaries of the ongoing local government reorganisation to reduce the chances of a postcode lottery of provision. At a time when ICS’ are getting bigger, it will be important that new unitaries are of the right size to work at scale with ICS’ to integrate services effectively and avoid additional complexity.”
