Joint working hit by social care cuts
By Nick Golding
As every agony aunt knows, financial difficulties put relationships under pressure. So it is scarcely surprising that at a time when primary care trusts find themselves saddled with deficit, simmering tension with their council partners has occasionally spilled over into public rows.
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Background Information
Local Government Association news release, July 2006
Social services finance 2005/06: a survey of local authorities
Local Government Association, March 2006
The future of adult and social care: a partnership approach for well-being
Local Government Association, November 2005
13th July 2006
Partnership Working - Buddies or barricades?
By Jon Glasby and colleagues
When New Labour came to power in 1997, partnership working between health and
social care was a central feature of policy and practice. In the early days,
there were ministerial pledges to bring down the ‘Berlin Wall’ between health and social care, the passage of the Health Act and the promise that all adult services would be delivered by new care trusts within a few years.
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Background Information
Click here to download a copy of the Health Services Management Centre’s briefing paper on the international symposium on partnership working.
Click here to find out more about the HSMC’s programmes on health and social care partnerships.
Click here to read HSJ’s major feature on the challenges of joint working between the NHS and local government.
29th June 2006
Public health - Out of joint
By Emma Dent
Joint appointments between the NHS and local authorities of directors of public health do not join up organisations. And serious thought needs to be given to what both organisations want to achieve from the post.
That is the message of a toolkit on appointing public health directors from the Cheshire and Merseyside Public Health Network (ChaMPs). Six local areas covered by the network have joint posts in place and the experiences of those directors have formed the paper, published earlier this month.
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More information
Making joint posts work
(or PDF can be requested from
vivienne.martindale@bwwpct.nhs.uk)
Cheshire and Merseyside Public Health Network
9th March 2006
Framework for success
Effective integration between health and social care has long been seen as a route to efficient, patient-centred services. Kaye McIntosh looks at the emerging partnerships.
Joined-up working between health and social care has long been the holy grail of the NHS. Arguments about whose budget should be used to support elderly patients and prevent them ending up in hospital, along with who foots the bill to get people out of hospital, have cause real headaches for service planning.
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More information
Best Practice Guidance on the Role of the Director of Adult Social Services
Department of Health, March 2005
Independence, well-being and choice: our vision for the future of social care for adults in England
Department of Health, August 2005
Supporting people with long term conditions: An NHS and social care model to support local innovation and integration
Department of Health, January 2005
Making partnership work for patients, carers and service users
A strategic agreement between the Department of Health, the NHS and the Voluntary and Community Sector (2004).
Association of Directors of Social Services 
