Lives we want to lead: NHS Clinical Commissioners' response to the LGA's green paper on adult social care and wellbeing

In 2016 NHSCC developed Stepping up to the place: the key to successful health and care integration with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation. This outlines the importance of integrating health and social care services, which is critical if we are to achieve shared ambitions of transforming care and delivering better outcomes for our populations. Many of the recommendations we made are still valid, and the role of CCGs and effective clinical commissioning to improve wellbeing should be recognised.

NHSCC knows that sufficient immediate and long-term social care funding is vital. As well as the important role social care plays in supporting individual wellbeing and improved quality of life, effective social care, alongside public health services, helps to maximise the use of the NHS pound. There is a continued and important role for both local authorities and CCGs – as such we fundamentally disagree with the proposal for Health and Wellbeing Boards to take on statutory duties to commission primary and community care, or for local authorities to take on more responsibility for the Better Care Fund. It is important to recognise individual roles and strengths within a system where partners are working together in a more collaborative and integrated way.

We know that there is still a long way to go to achieve integrated commissioning, and steps to improve data and regulatory arrangements would be welcomed. We are however pleased that more than 4 in 5 council leaders and cabinet members report making good progress in integrating with their CCG. We hope that the future of social care will involve further collaboration with CCGs as we move to integrated place-based commissioning.