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Building Back Better: the Government's plan for Health and Social Care

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Health and social care is fundamental to us all, especially after COVID-19 brought into sharp relief how critical the effective delivery of public services is across the UK. The Government is therefore announcing a significant investment in health and social care of around £12 billion per year on average across the UK.

See what steps the government will take to implement these measures, here. 

While the headlines are on the £86,000 care cap, the government have announced that they will work with citizens, the NHS, Local Governments and other key stakeholders to co-produce a comprehensive national plan for supporting and enabling integration between health and social care.

The document acknowledges that there are a wider set of issues that the adult social care sector faces beyond those relating to costs to users and the workforce. Therefore the Government will take a number of steps including:

"invest in the Disabled Facilities Grant and supported housing, as well as exploring other innovative housing solutions to support more people to live independently at home"

This documents also states: 

"This will involve creating the right local incentives for integration and prevention, as well as working with the NHS, social care providers and other partners to ensure that they are working to deliver more effective care in people's own homes and their communities, breaking down the barriers between services.

They plan to do this through a renewed focus on:

  • Outcomes: a greater focus on delivering outcomes rather than processes via a single set of system-based health and care outcomes that local systems will be asked to deliver. 
  • Empowering local leaders: local leaders will be given the freedom to align incentives and structures in order to deliver these outcomes in the way that is best for their communities. 
  • Wider system reforms: there will be Care Quality Commission (CQC) oversight of Local Authorities’ commissioning of adult social care.

Commenting on today’s announcement, the Housing LIN’s CEO, Jeremy Porteus, stated:

“We need a concrete plan that not only invests to meet the current shortfall in health and social care spend but also puts in place the footings to build a sustainable system that offers real choices for the future, including specifically boosting the supply of housing with care as a viable alternative.”