Building bridges, breaking barriers

The Care Quality Commission conducted this thematic review to improve understanding of how well health and social care and support services work together to meet the needs of older people, and how this affects people's experiences of care.

The review found many initiatives that aimed to deliver integrated care, finding evidence of some good practice, and in many cases considerable drive from providers and commissioners to improve the way services work together.

However, it did not find many examples of it working really well. There was considerable variation in the care provided and in the experiences and outcomes for older people.

Whilst it argues that there seems to be no 'best way' of integrating care - improvements are often focused at multiple levels in the health and social care system and are developed locally rather than nationally.