Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 1.4 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 on local plans for health and social care integration, what steps the Government and NHS England are taking to ensure that (a) the needs of working age disabled people and (b) outcomes related to independent living are included in those plans.

The Better Care Fund (BCF), first announced in Spending Round 2013, and implemented from the beginning of 2015-16, is the first national, mandatory integration policy. One of its overarching aims is to keep people living independently at home and in their communities, including those who are disabled and of working age.

The Integration and Better Care Fund Policy Framework for 2017-19, due to be published early in the New Year, sets out proposals for going beyond the BCF towards further integration by 2020. Although there will be no separate process for integration plans, local areas will set out how they expect to progress to further integration by 2020 in their BCF 17-19 returns. We will provide a set of resources, integration models and indicators for integration to help local areas. However, it will be up to local areas how they use the fund to benefit their population.