Sustainable Care and Health Systems

Sustainable, integrated Care and Health Systems support people to live long and happy lives in their communities.

Good quality care and support should be determined and delivered in partnership with those of us who need it, making good use of health and care resources provided by Local Authorities. By recentring care choices within local authorities, working with local communities to inform best practice, care and support can truly be inclusive and tailored to those needing and working in adult social care.

Our shared goal must be to join up and coordinate care around the individual. For too long care has been built around organisations and buildings such as hospitals, day-care centres and care homes. The future must be about what works for us as individuals and our families, with a whole series of local organisations working together to organise care and support that enables us to work, stay independent at home, and be as engaged in our communities as we want.

Local authorities sit at the heart of our communities and are ideally placed to coordinate this care and support. Local authorities have a vital role to play in working with providers to drive up the quality of care available locally and in transforming our commissioning approaches by removing the distances between commissioners, providers, and those of us with care and support needs.

However, Local Authorities cannot provide the best possible care in a vacuum. Central to this vision is to ensure all key players work collaboratively, making the best use of existing resources for the benefit of those of us who need care and support. We need to work with Government partners, providers, local communities, shaping social care initiatives with healthcare partners, in line with a strong social model that humanises, and centres care around the person who needs it. We must move away from overly medicalised and pathologized attitudes to models that respect and empower people’s agency.

We can only do so if we work collaboratively in integrated systems that sustainably provide the care we all want for ourselves and our families – an equal partnership that ultimately benefits us all.

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