Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local authority commissioners should join forces and work together when it comes to social care, a leading councillor has said.
Speaking at a panel on the future of adult social care at the Health+Care Show 2018 at ExCel London, Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Wellbeing board chair councillor Izzi Seccombe said the Government needs to focus on funding social care.
She added that at present, local authorities are doing their best to deliver good care despite the drop in funding.
However, she also said that she does not see ‘a model coming forward for integration between health and social care but I would absolutely see integration between clinical commissioning groups and local commissioners’.
Speaking to Healthcare Leader she said ‘there is the chance of trying to bring together the clinical commissioners and local authority commissioners to make a joint commissioning group’.
She continued: ‘CCGs represent their GP grouping and local authorities also represent their community. I think the integration opportunity is there and we are doing it.
‘It is quite difficult and quite challenging but it is happening in a number of local authorities. Where CCGs do commissioning, also local authorities do commissioning.
‘I think that local authorities have learned to get more efficient in the last few years because of the funding situation.’
When asked how CCGs and local commissioners can work together, Ms Seccombe told Healthcare Leader: ‘It needs to be about local relationships, and understanding how important [those] local areas are.
‘In Warwickshire, we are now trying to create an area which might be based around one or two GPs so you have social and primary care working together with the third sector being a key part of that.’
