Health and Social Care Policy and the Interprofessional ... - CAIPE

Similarly, in the NSF for coronary heart disease (DH, 2000c) there is
reference to 'collaboration' of the numerous individuals involved in this area of
care. In order to achieve the goals set out in the NSF for diabetes, services
need to be 'integrated' and include 'health and social care professionals
across a multidisciplinary diabetes health care team, including primary care
and social care as well as specialist services' (DH, 2001a: 14).
In 2001, with the publication of the NSF for older people, a single assessment
process was advocated along with a recommendation that older people
receive 'appropriate and timely packages of care… regardless of health and
social services boundaries' (DH, 2001b). The NSF has identified four core
principles for those caring for older people. These are: to respect the
individual; deliver joined up care; ensure that everyone is able to access
specialist care when they need it and to promote healthy and active living.
The NSF also places a strong emphasis on the need to integrate care for
older people through closer co-operation across boundaries and through the
development of agreed pathways.
In the Children's NSF the government advocated the development of
'Children's Trusts' where the planning, commissioning and delivery of health,
education and social care services, along with other relevant agencies would
be coordinated and integrated. It also highlighted the need for co-location of
services, a common core of training for the workforce, the use of a lead
professional, integrated commissioning, a common assessment process,
pooled resources, the sharing of information and robust inter-agency
governance arrangements (DH, 2004a). The Children’s NSF perhaps has the
most far reaching consequences of all in that it prescribes an interagency
interprofessional model encompassing health, education and care for all
children and young people. Implementation of this NSF has been rapid and
the evidence of its effectiveness is just beginning to emerge.
The renal NSF (DH, 2004b; 2005a) promoted 'renal services health
communities' which enable all stakeholders, including service users, to take
ownership. It was highlighted that such communities would promote 'work
across traditional service boundaries and models of care' to provide seamless
care (DH, 2004b: 11). Closer working between health and social services was
echoed in the NSF for long-term neurological conditions along with the need
for a 'holistic, integrated, interdisciplinary approach to care planning, review
and service delivery involving a range of agencies' (DH, 2005b: 13).
The Wanless Report
In 2001 Derek Wanless was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
undertake a long-term view of the future health of the UK. His brief was to
examine emerging trends and identify the resources required to ensure that
the NHS remained a ‘publicly funded, comprehensive, high quality service
available on the basis of clinical need and not ability to pay’ (HM Treasury
2001: 1).
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