Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Facilitate integrated working between health and social care services to reduce delayed discharges.
Conclusion
We have previously noted that the fragility of the adult social care provider market was exacerbating the difficulties in discharging older patients from hospital.55 NHS England agreed that there is a clear challenge in social care. Different solutions are needed in different parts of the country, but health and social care services must work together to tackle problems with delayed discharges from hospital.56 The Department noted that social care remains primarily the responsibility of local government, but that recent changes due to the Health and Care Act 2022 had increased its oversight and awareness of the sector, and provided a better basis for shared solutions between local government and the NHS through the move from Clinical Commissioning Groups to Integrated Care Boards.57 However, NHS England acknowledged that the challenge with delayed discharges does not lie entirely in social care and more work needs to be done in the hospital sector.58
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings, stating the recommendation has been implemented through an additional £1.6 billion investment and the Urgent and Emergency Care recovery plan, which funds services for rehabilitation, improves discharge processes, and increases adult social care capacity to address delayed discharges.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The Department of Health and Social Care is investing an additional £1.6 billion over 2023-24 and 2024-25, on top of the extra £500 million invested in 2022-23, to enable the NHS and local authorities to commission a greater range of services for people who need short-term packages of care and support for rehabilitation, reablement and recovery and to prevent avoidable delays to hospital discharge. 4.3 The Urgent and Emergency Care recovery plan, published in January 2023, sets out a wide programme of measures to tackle delayed discharges from hospital and community settings and improve outcomes for patients. In addition to increased discharge funding, this includes action to improve discharge processes; introduce care transfer hubs in all areas of the country to streamline and improve management of discharges for patients with more complex health and/or social care needs; improve models of rehabilitation and reablement; increase adult social care capacity; provide a more integrated approach to supporting improvements in discharge across health and social care; and improve the use of data and metrics to drive improvements in discharge.