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Integration

A nurse and an elderly woman stood outside smiling at each other

Supporting you to make the change to integrated care delivery

Integrated care is about people only having to tell their story once and getting the high quality care and support that they want and need, in a joined-up and seamless approach. It’s about the right services being provided and care being given by appropriately skilled workers.

To do this, social care, health services, housing organisations and other service providers need to work together to join up the care and support they provide.

The Principles of workforce integration

These principles will help you to think though what is meant by workforce integration and the contribution that workforce development can make. There is also practical guidance to help you when thinking about the learning and development needs of your workers.

Download the 'Principles of workforce integration' 

We also have a summary of the principles which is available here. 

What are we doing?

Building Trust between social care and health organisations
working together to improve people’s experience of hospital admission and discharge back into the community

The extent to which organisations work together, affects people’s experiences of being admitted and/or discharged from hospital.

We spoke to a range of adult social care and health employers to find out how they work with each other and other sectors, particularly around hospital admissions and discharges.

We’ve developed seven top tips based on the findings, to help you build effective relationships and refine current ways of working with different organisations in your integrated care system.

Care coordination

In an increasingly integrated social care and health system that is focussed on independence, choice and control, the importance of coordinating care is growing.

The title of ‘care coordinator’ is commonly used to identify one worker from across both social care and health who would ‘coordinate’ the care for an individual who accesses care and support. 

It's also used in other ways too though, so we worked with partners to develop ‘A guide to coordinating care'. This guide clarifies the functions involved in coordinating care, and supports a consistent definition of care coordination for those working at the interface of social care and health.

Enhanced health in care home framework

The Enhanced health in care home framework supports providers and commissioners of services to improve the quality of life, healthcare and planning for people living in care homes. We've mapped our tools and resources to the framework, so that you can look at what practical help there is with adapting the way you work in your service to be prepared for future opportunities that arise from more integrated working. 

 

We provided six months intensive on-site support to a group of the Integrated Care and Support Pioneers (Cheshire, Cornwall, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Torbay and South Devon and Wakefield) to help them identify and develop the skills, functions and expertise required to deliver personalised, integrated care.

Together with Skills for Health we helped them to:

  • develop their workforce planning and redesign, including the development of new service models and roles, and the testing of integrated workforce proposals
  • engage with leaders, management, workforce and wider stakeholders to co-produce a workforce solution and develop integrated working behaviours
  • implement change including the development of training packages and recruitment strategies.

We did this by assessing their need and then guiding them to establish tailored flexible solutions based on their own local priorities. Find out more about how we supported these sites.

Our offer for new models of care outlines how we can support you to make the change to integrated care delivery. It highlights:

  • why it’s important
  • what the challenges are
  • how we can help you to meet these
  • how culture and leadership are fundamental to integration.

It explains how we’re working with the new models of care, including the Integrated Care and Support Pioneers, Vanguard, Better Care Fund and Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) sites, the Transforming Care Programme, and housing services, to support the development of an integrated workforce.

You’ll also find a useful directory of our resources which are listed under the key issues for integration.

Download our offer for new models of care

 

If you work in the housing sector then you may already be working in an integrated way.

But research shows that there are areas for improvement, which with a new approach to workforce development and planning, would improve the impact and outcomes for people who need care and support.

We have lots of information about why housing is an important partner in workforce integration, plus video case studies which demonstrate how housing, care and support staff have skilfully worked to respond to the needs and wishes of residents to deliver tailored care.

We also have a guide which outlines the challenges and opportunities around adult workforce development for the housing with care and support sector.

Visit our social care and housing webpage

 

The different ways of working together

We’ve pulled together examples of how people have been developed to work in a more integrated way.

Download our integrated working and roles document

Social care and health case studies

We have case studies which show the impact and outcomes for workforce development of:

  • reduced and avoidable hospital admissions
  • reablement and timely hospital discharges
  • smoother transitions from hospital to care settings
  • better use of resources.

Visit our Learn from others site and search for ‘health and social care integration’ to see these case studies.

 

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Skills for Care Ltd, West Gate, Grace Street, Leeds, LS1 2RP.

Registered company no. 3866683. Registered in England charity no. 1079836. Group VAT no. 135 538313.