| Health and Social Care Joint Unit
The Joint Unit was established in August 1998 and works on issues at
the interface of health and social care.
The Unit's broad remit is
to develop policy on joint working between health and social services.
This is an increasingly important area of work. Ministers have set out in
a wide number of policy initiatives the importance of joint working for
success.
The paragraphs below describe the policy areas where the work of the
Unit is currently focused.
Joint working between health and social care
The 1999 Health
Act Partnership Arrangements allow closer working between health and local
authorities. The key powers are being able to pool funds and delegate
functions to enable integrated provision and lead commissioning. Their
progress continues to be developed through the work of the joint unit.
The Health and Social Care Act 2001 builds on the aims of
integrating health and local authority services for vulnerable people. It
introduced a new policy for the formation of Care Trusts, which are new
bodies, able to commission and/or provide health and other services, which
can be better co-ordinated to meet the needs of the users.
Continuing care policy
This refers to situations where a
person's health needs are such that the NHS funds all their care in a
nursing home or their own home. Health Authorities have local eligibility
criteria which define the level of NHS care. Updated guidance on "Fully
funded NHS Continuing Care" was issued in July 2001. This brings together
15 previous circulars and updates them in the light of NHS changes.
NHS -funded nursing care
The NHS employs nurses to deliver
care needed by the vast majority of the population, whether in hospital,
residential care or at home. The main exception is for residents of
independent sector nursing homes (about 140,000 in England) until October
2001. One quarter of these fully fund their care costs, including their
nursing care, themselves. From October 2001 the NHS has funded the care
these residents receive from a registered nurse.
Delayed discharge
Patients, particularly older people, need
health and social services to work together to deliver the care they need,
when they need it. Since the NHS Plan was published the Government has
reduced delayed transfers of care from hospitals with extra funding and by
encouraging improved local co-operation between the NHS and social
services. The Joint Unit's website on delayed discharge focuses on the
initiatives introduced by the Government to tackle the ongoing issues
surrounding delayed transfers.
We can be contacted at:
Room 214/215
Wellington
House
133-155 Waterloo Road
London SE1 8UG
Fax: 020 7972
4487
Email: mb-hsd-scju@doh.gsi.gov.uk
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