UK: Ageing Population

Baroness Greengross Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I can say to my noble friend that I will certainly do that, because this is a very important report. I thank not only the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, but all members of the committee, who worked extremely hard to prepare a very well thought out set of conclusions.

[Baroness Greengross]

My Lords, does the noble Earl agree that social care has been the poor relation for so many years and that we need integration as soon as possible with health and housing? To achieve that, would he commit to the Government mandating integration and earmark sufficient funds so that this care can be a reality as soon as possible for older people with chronic conditions?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Baroness. It is our ambition that people should receive high-quality, integrated, person-centred services that deliver the best outcomes to the service user. Making the service as a whole more efficient is the other benefit of integrating service. There is no single definitive model of integration. Some localities are further advanced than others in thinking about new ways of delivering it. We are developing the concept of pioneers to support the rapid dissemination and uptake of lessons learnt across the country, but we want to encourage local experimentation as much as we can to allow local areas to provide integrated care at scale and pace.