Health Management and Policy Alert

Medicines in health and adult social care: learning from risks and sharing good practice for better outcomes

Care Quality Commission - 

This report report describes lessons for better medicines optimisation across health and social care providers and the positive impact of involving pharmacy professionals in health and social care settings.

• Report
• Press rlease

Crisis in care: what do MPs think?

Health for Care -
Health for Care is a coalition, led by the NHS Confederation, of 15 national health organisations. To inform government thinking ahead of the green paper and the expected spending review in autumn 2019, the coalition wanted to test the views of MPs on whether they believe there is a crisis in social care, whether they have noticed an increase in their constituency casework regarding social care, and what options for reform they would favour.

• Briefing
• NHS Confederation - publications

Adult Social Care Data and Cyber Security Programme: final report

Institute of Public Care - 

The Adult Social Care Data and Cyber Security Discovery Programme was funded by the national cyber security programme to explore how the adult social care sector uses technology and to identify good practice, as well as security risks, prevalent in the sector. This report identifies the common, key risks that provider services face. In addition, it considers the effectiveness of existing support for providers and the changes needed nationally and locally to systems and support in order to maintain cyber security and good information governance.

• Report
• More detail

English council funding: what’s happened and what’s next?

Institute for Fiscal Studies - 

This report finds that overall spending on local services by English councils fell by 21 per cent between 2009-10 and 2017-18. Some services have seen much deeper cuts though. Spending on planning & development and housing services fell by more than 50 per cent while cultural & leisure services and highways & transport also saw cuts of more than 40 per cent over the same period. This has allowed councils to protect social care services from the full force of budget cuts. Spending on adult social care fell by 5 per cent between 2009–10 and 2017–18 – although the numbers receiving care fell by much more – and spending on acute children’s social care services (such as social work, safeguarding and fostering) actually rose by 10 per cent.

• Report
• Press release

Waiting for Care: is Scotland meeting its commitment to older people

Age UK Scotland - 
This report highlights more than 4 in 10 older people with ‘critical’ or ‘substantial’ needs wait more than six weeks for social care in Scotland. It outlines six recommendations to local and national government which could help improve the position, including; more regular data recording so councils can spot trends and better respond and plan for increased demand; further efforts to attract and recruit more social care workers; and ensuring that the resources required to fund social care in the future are met.

• Report
• Press release

Independent review of local government spending need and funding

County Councils Network (CCN) - 
This report identifies a funding gap of over £50bn over the next six years for councils in England. It estimates that by 2025, 78 per cent of the 36 county authorities’ spending will relate to four key service areas: adult social care, children’s services, public health and education services.

• Report
• Press release

Social care: free at the point of need – the case for free personal care in England

Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) - 
This paper sets out new research and policy proposals which aim to address the growing crisis in social care. Its recommendations aim to improve the efficiency of health and social care services in England by joining up health and social care policy and delivering a more preventative model of care. They also aim to advance the physical and mental health of those with social care needs by ensuring that everyone – regardless of means – receives adequate and appropriate support.

• Report

21st century social care: what’s wrong with social care and how we can fix it

Policy Exchange -
This research paper explores the nature and extent of the serious and urgent problems affecting the provision of social care in the UK. It identifies how these problems have evolved from the institutional structures developed for providing health and social care and offers proposals for complex, long-term social care in England.

• Report
• Policy Exchange - publications

Care deserts: the impact of a dysfunctional market in adult social care provision

Age UK -
This report by Incisive Health highlights the extent of the local lottery that now exists when trying to secure residential care or care at home, and the long-feared emergence of ‘care deserts’ in some places. These are localities where this is literally no care to be had, even when older people can afford to pay, leaving significant sections of the population with potentially long distances to travel to get suitable care.

• Report
• Age UK - press release

Integrating health and social care: state or market?

Institute of Economic Affairs -
This report argues that the only way to facilitate better outcomes in terms of patient care and efficiency, is within a system that allows more competition in healthcare provision with different organisations integrating health and social care according to the preferences of their customers and clients.

• Report
• Institute of Economic Affairs - press release