Aligning workforces

The results of the survey highlighted three areas of particular worry.

When asked to pick from a list of 11 possible concerns about integrating health and
social care, those most cited were aligning workforces (72%), relationships with partner organisations within the integrated care system (72%) and funding (70%).

Culture (56%) was the only other area of potential concern that was chosen by more than half of respondents.

Five other areas were highlighted by at least a quarter of respondents: capacity within their organisation (40%), compatibility of data from different organisations
(35%), quality of data (33%), consent of residents for their data to be used (28%) and data security (26%).

The technology and skills available within their council were the areas of least concern, chosen by 19% and 14% of respondents respectively.

A number of respondents highlighted other concerns. For one transformation officer, it was simply “delivering several reforms at the same time”, while an adult social services officer said “financial imbalance within the ICS makes progress on any new initiative difficult”.

Two people highlighted a perceived difference in approach between the health and
local government sectors – a theme that would come up repeatedly in responses.

For one, this concern centred on “NHS centralised command and control”, while an adult social services officer wrote: “Overcontrol from an NHS which doesn’t understand social care or local councils/democracy, and which is also struggling to integrate the different parts of the NHS successfully.”