Health and Care Bill published

The way integrated care systems like the BSW Partnership are run and improve health and care for local people has been outlined in a new Government Bill.

The new Health and Care Bill received its first reading in Parliament in July, is expected to reach Committee stage in September with a target date of becoming law next April.

The bill will ensure each part of England has an Integrated Care Board and an Integrated Care Partnership responsible for bringing together local NHS and local government, social care, mental health services and public health teams to deliver joined up care for its local population.

The bill will look to ensure that clinicians, carers and public health experts will be empowered to operate collaboratively, as part of plans to tackle inequalities and level up health across the country.

In BSW health and care organisations, local authorities, voluntary sector groups, a mental health trust, ambulance trust and private providers have been working together for a number of years. Collectively, as the BSW Partnership Integrated Care System they look to improve the health and welding of local people, reform the quality and experience of care, reduce health and care inequalities and reduce costs.

What’s in the Health and Care Bill?

• The NHS and local government coming together to plan health and care services around their patients’ needs, and quickly implement innovative solutions to problems which would normally take years to fix, including moving services out of hospitals and into the community, and focusing on preventative healthcare.
  
• The development of a new way of spending for the NHS and public health, informed by public consultation, to reduce bureaucracy on commissioners and providers alike, and reduce the need for competitive tendering where it adds limited or no value.
  
• A package of measures to deliver on specific needs in the social care sector. This will improve oversight and accountability in the delivery of services through new data sharing measures in social care, update the legal framework to enable person-centred models of hospital discharge, and introduce improved powers for the Secretary of State to directly make payments to adult social care providers where required.