Personal budgets: health and social care integration

What is the video about?

This film looks at how Kent County Council is approaching integrating personal budgets from health and social care as part of their work as a personal health budget pilot site. It features service users and carers whose lives will be affected by the change, along with the implementation programme managers and frontline staff. They discuss the changes, new processes and the potential for positive outcomes. All agree that integrated personal centred support and personal budgets are important for achieving people’s choice and control over their care and support and therefore for their outcomes. Such an approach promotes holistic working with people.

Messages for practice

  1. Successful integration of health and social care for people with long term conditions depends on a consistent focus on quality of care and support and on outcomes. It is also important to take a holistic view.
  2. Service users and carers must have a strategic role in implementing integrated approaches between health and social care.
  3. Integrated, self-directed care and support plans are a good place to start when exploring integrated personal budgets for people with continuing care needs.
  4. Integrating care and support plans can improve efficiency and service user satisfaction and outcomes.
  5. Integrating care and support plans can improve joint working between health and social care staff.
  6. Achieving integrated personal budgets will be challenging for some staff and will require a culture change, but this is vital for improving service user and carer outcomes and overall efficiency.      

Who will find this useful?

Commissioners; NHS continuing healthcare managers or directors (and other NHS managers including those in joint trusts); Local Authority adult social care managers and directors; Social workers; Community nursing/health practitioners; GPs; User led organisations and other personal budget support infrastructure organisations; Service users and carers (particularly those with long term conditions who are eligible for NHS continuing healthcare).