ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the pitfalls and opportunities for primary health and social care partnership working that are likely to develop over the next few years. New initiatives, such as "Better Government for Older People", which are focused on reducing interorganisational barriers and delivering services to older people in a more streamlined "one-stop-shop" way, will also have implications for joint working with primary care. PCGs will find themselves obliged to work in partnership with the wider local authority to commission and provide health and other services for older people. Having salaried GPs could offer trusts valuable new flexible ways of delivering and commissioning services for older people. However, it is only when PCGs take on board the full range of possibilities opened up by achieving trust status that they will be able to exploit some of the more innovative options for working in partnership with social services.
