This Tuesday, Warwickshire County Council held a Public Interest Debate which focused upon Health and Social Care in Warwickshire. The original Tory motion asked for backing for a formalisation of an integrated care system for Warwickshire. The Labour amendment, which was passed, called for more money from central government to fund such a move. This amendment comes in the light of the fact that the 2% extra levy being used to prop up Social Care for the past 5 years will end this financial year, leaving a short-fall which will have a devastating impact on the people of Warwickshire.

Labour Group spokesperson for Health and social Care, Cllr Parsons, who moved the Labour amendment, stated ‘Whilst we support the motion for an integrated Health system, it is impossible to deliver it without proper funding. There is a crisis in funding in Adult Social Care and Health and furthermore, the extra levy topping funding in this area comes to an end at the end of this year, which leaves a gap in funding which is already stretched.’ Labour Cllr Webb added, ‘We want a strong, healthy and vibrant NHS to care for the people of Warwickshire. An integrated system should be adequately and sustainably funded.’

The meeting included presentations by a number of guest speakers and an opportunity for the pubic to speak. Anna Pollert, of Keep Our NHS Public, spoke at the meeting and was pessimistic about the relevance for the formulisation of an integrated care system. She argued, ‘I do not think the County Council should support the Integrated Care System, another top-down re-organisation by NHSE and only a new name for Accountable Care Systems, the successors to the STPs. The positive-sounding word ‘integration’ hides the fact that these new ‘systems’ are still Trojan Horses for cuts and rationing of health-care, as the STPs were. ICSs will harden the fragmentation of the NHS, begun as the 44 STP footprints, into around 40 ICSs across the country. Where will the unified, comprehensive system of the National Health Service go? ICSs will be based on an Integrated Care Provider (ICP) contract, which will run for 10-15 years, be open to public/private partnerships. They will be multi-billion £ contracts, and attractive to major health corporations. If NHS England really wanted to assure the
public there would be no risk of a private contractor getting the contract, they should insist that the contract can only go to an NHS body or other statutory provider.

Martin Drew, also of Keep Our NHS Public added, ‘Like motherhood and apple pie, integrating the Care System sounds like a good thing, like joined up thinking is always a good idea. Just one problem, it ignores reality: the crises across the board in health and social care caused by chronic underfunding and understaffing. Integrated Care will do nothing to address the urgent need for a major transplant of money. Coventry & Warwickshire STP, sorry, accountable care system/organisation, sorry Better Health, Better Care, Better Value/ Integrated Care Partnership will have cut £270 million during the present 5 year reconfiguration plan. As demand has risen because of an ageing population, every area has had to cut services and increase waiting times. Children’s Centres closed, A& E waiting times ballooned, mental health services continue to be starved of funding, local voluntary sector support charities have had funding cut by up to 60%. Above all, as Niall Dickson CEO of NHS Confederation stated, “Public Health and Social Care provided by local authorities are the elephants in the room. These vital services are absent in the public debate about the provision of an effective care system. Yet these services are cornerstones of the new out of hospital services. Social services are on the critical list. Coventry and Warwickshire will have reduced adult social care spending by £13.5m by 2020 with an extra £398 000 of cuts to disability services. ’
Councillor Parsons ended the debate with a call for the end to means testing for Social Care and for the NHS to remain free at the point of delivery, providing care from the cradle to the grave.