Governance and finance of long-term care - University of Birmingham

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Allen et al., 2011 Governance and Financing of LTC | European Overview systems of assessing needs and entitlement. This demonstrates the importance of a co-‐ordinated approach to the devolution of responsibility. Creation of a coordinated and continual approach to addressing LTC need is complicated by the fact that the share of tax to satisfy social needs of older people is not earmarked for LTC. This increases risks that finance may disappear into the general budgets of self-‐governing regions (Bednárik et al., 2010). 4.2.2 De-‐centralising LTC systems The different structures which underpin the governance of LTC in terms of funding, organisation of institutions of government and the role of different sectors in assessment and provision, also complicate the measurement and comparison of decentralisation in LTC systems. Two different levels of decentralised structures are apparent within the selection of European countries, with some of them incorporating aspects of both. • Decentralisation of LTC to municipal/local council level (SE, DK, UK, FI, CH, FR, SK): Within these predominantly tax-‐funded systems, responsibility for planning, co-‐ordinating, financing and delivering LTC services belongs to the lowest level of government. • Regional government/government agency responsibility (AT, EL, FR) or regional LTC bodies (NL, DE), consolidation of LTC administrative function and one-‐stop-‐shops (CH, FR) for LTC users and professionals: In many cases these approaches demonstrate attempts to re-‐centralise or consolidate local actors in order to strategically address LTC need. The development of de-‐centralisation of LTC policies on a vertical line shows tiered responsibilities across national, regional and local levels with insurance companies playing varying roles in some countries. Only in selected cases (e.g. UK, FI, SE, NL) the legal framework for LTC policies is at the state level, while health care is in most cases regulated at the central level. The state retains responsibility for monitoring and analysing health and medical care (although in some cases this is also the remit of localised trusts, e.g. UK), produce legislation and other guidelines. The practical tasks of service delivery are managed by municipal bodies or insurance companies (e.g. DE, FR, NL). In several countries (e.g. SE, CH, AT, SK) different competences at regional and municipal levels are established. Crucial for strong local care authorities are a mandatory legal framework and an adequate level of freedom in financial decisions. In Bismarckian countries with powerful health care insurers, local or regional authorities should have enough countervailing power to be a valuable partner in designing a well functioning LTC system. Decentralisation of LTC functions and responsibilities to a local level can be exemplified in the Finnish, Swedish and Danish systems: • Finnish municipalities are legally obliged to organize health and social services for their residents. There are currently 342 municipalities with a median size of less than 6,000 inhabitants. Municipal services for older people comprise of home care, support for informal care, service housing, institutional care, preventive care services and rehabilitation. A municipality can provide the services independently, together with other municipalities or purchase services from private sector providers. The municipality can also admit the client a service voucher for purchasing services from predetermined private providers. In addition, private companies offer elderly care services ranging from various types of support services to all inclusive service housing. The municipality (or several 32
Allen et al., 2011 Governance and Financing of LTC | European Overview municipalities jointly) is obliged to draw up a policy strategy that has been approved by the local council. The drafting of the strategy should be carried out collectively by representatives of the administration, residents, clients and family members, and central interest groups. The strategy must take into account the elderly population in all aspects of municipal decision-‐making and activities, such as community planning, housing and traffic policies, cultural and recreational activities, and educational facilities. The execution of the strategy is integrated into the municipal budget and financial plan and monitored on a regular basis for continuous development of elderly care services and related activities (Klavus & Meriläinen, 2010). • The Swedish Health and Medical Services Act (HMSA) and Social Services Act (SSA) responsibilities across LTC provision are placed at either county council or municipality level, with collaboration between councils within regions. The HSMA sets out the respective responsibilities of county councils of acute care, GPs and rehabilitation. The SSA sets out the responsibilities of municipalities i.e. social care home help in regular housing, home care, special housing nursing homes and day activities. Companies, trusts and cooperatives often provide services, but the local authorities retain the ultimate responsibility for supply and maintenance of the level of care. Councils and municipalities have the right to finance the activities by levying taxes and fees within the limits set by the legal framework (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, 2007; Ljunggren & Emilsson, 2010). • In Denmark the local authorities have autonomy and responsibility for providing LTC services within the primary sector, including prevention, rehabilitation and LTC social and home care. Acute and specialised care are regional responsibilities and the five health regions play an explicit role as a platform for planning and enhancing quality (Campbell & Wagner, 2010). Denmark’s local government reform of 2007 (Example 4, appendix 3) provides a clear example of the rationale behind devolved responsibility for service planning. Local authorities became the gateway to the public sector and thereby took on a frontline role in both health and social care, with regions taking explicit responsibility for quality. One of the overt reasons for assigning sole responsibility to local authorities for, for example, all prevention and rehabilitation services, was to reduce the occurrence of ‘grey zones’ where patients move from the secondary to the primary sector (Christensen & Hansen, 2006: 43). Proximity to citizens gives local authorities opportunities to follow and affect citizens’ health. Furthermore, local authorities were enabled to establish a holistic, cross-‐sector and coherent prevention and rehabilitation system, involving a broad range of health concepts in an integrated and localised range of services (Campbell & Wagner, 2010). Within local health budgets preventive services are incentivised and rewarded through activity-‐based local authority contributions. In Denmark, localised capacity in LTC has enabled successful multi-‐disciplinary centres for LTC. Set up by local authorities, the concept is an organisational unit, usually led by senior nurses or physiotherapists, that offers patients who have been referred by their GPs targeted health promotional, preventative and rehabilitative support, training, guidance and/or treatment, co-‐ordinated and delivered by a multi-‐ disciplinary team. LTC centre teams include all or some of the following: nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, doctors, social workers, dieticians. All health centres have in common the need for strong partnership and joint working between GPs, hospitals, patient associations and training and exercise providers. The stated aims are to increase cross-‐sectoral working, improve quality, increase recruitment and improve continuity for patients (Campbell & Wagner, 2010). The second approach of regional LTC responsibility can be observed, among others, in Austria, the Netherlands, France and Switzerland: 33
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Governance and finance of long-term care - University of Birmingham

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