Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that health and care services are well integrated.

The integration white paper, published on 9 February 2022, sets out our policy on integrating health care and social care, complementing the measures in the Health and Social Care Bill and the adult social care reform white paper.

The white paper describes a shared outcomes framework and single accountable person for these outcomes. This will support local organisations to collaborate to prioritise and integrate services. We expect organisations will identify a single accountable person by spring 2023. The white paper also identifies that specific policies, such as those related to workforce, digital and data, financial pooling and alignment and oversight and leadership can enable greater integration.