A Pioneer for better health care

Kent has taken an important step forward in working for an effective health and social care system, and I'm pleased to be part of it.

In addition to my role as Darent Valley's County Councillor, I am the KCC Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform. The 'Health Reform' bit relates chiefly to chairing the Kent Health and Wellbeing Board. The Board is a creation of Andrew Lansley's 2012 Health and Social Care Act - a widely-accepted part of very controversial legislation. It brings together local government with the new GP leaders of the Kent NHS to plan better, more joined up services between health (the NHS), social care (local government) and public health (which has now moved to local government).

In the summer, the Department of Health asked local areas such as Kent, working through their Health and Wellbeing Boards, to apply for 'Pioneer' status in bringing health and social care closer together. More than 100 areas applied, and today the Department of Health has announced that Kent is one of just 14 chosen.

This is a terrific endorsement of the work being done in the County, and means that we will be able to accelerate our efforts with support from national government in tackling some of the hardest obstacles, such as how information is shared and how the different workforces of the NHS and social care are brought closer together.

Nationally, the government is forcing the pace of change, chiefly through a £3.8 billion 'Integration Transformation Fund' that also looks to accelerate progress. In Kent, we are likely to combine much of our work on the aims of the Fund with our new Pioneer status. They are both about the same thing: bringing services together so that they are more responsive to the needs of patients and, by building up community services as an alternative to unnecessary admissions to hospitals and care homes, ensuring that services stay affordable even as we face the pressures of an ageing population. To me, these are things well worth working for, and it is terrific that Kent is at the forefront of doing so.

You can find KCC's press release about Pioneer status here, and the Department of Health's press release here. If you are interested in the work of the Health and Wellbeing Board, you can find out more about it on KCC's website.