ABSTRACT

The existing health and social care models are not adequately equipped to deal with these challenges. So far, the care has been provided by the number of organisationally and functionally loosely connected entities, each incentivised to deal with their own constraints and manage own clinical, operational and financial performance, rather than to optimise the whole system. Due to the changing pattern of demand, meeting the needs of the population will require a shift of emphasis from acute care towards prevention, public health and self-care as well as more consistency in primary care. Because the potential for most tangible and long-lasting benefits could be expected from the interventions in these domains, many programmes of integration have been and will be focusing at the interfaces between primary and social care and primary and secondary care. The Care Act 2014 outlines a significant role for carers in the new model of health and social care transformation in the United Kingdom.