NHS not ‘human’ enough to get greater role in social care, says government review

The NHS should not be given greater control of social care because it is ‘hierarchical, centralised and not person-centred’, according to a government-commissioned review which is repeatedly scathing about the health service.

The review was ordered by then health and social care secretary Matt Hancock in June 2020. Cross-bench peer, writer and former Number 10 adviser Baroness Camilla Cavendish was asked “to make recommendations for social care reform and integration with health in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which could fit alongside the funding reforms planned by the department in the context of the NHS long-term plan.”

In her final report, Baroness Cavendish wrote that “one answer” to the problems facing the sector “would be to let the NHS take over social care. On paper, this would join up the care continuum.”

However, she rejected the idea because of the NHS’ “hierarchical” and “centralised” nature. Baroness Cavendish also suggested the NHS’ role should be limited because it is “still struggling to join up primary and secondary care”.

In contrast to the NHS, she claimed: “Social care is more innovative, more responsive and human.”

She added: “The culture of the NHS is still largely one of ‘doing to’ patients, and the NHS has much to learn from social care about how to be responsive and human facing.”

Referencing “recent attempts to import the successful [Buurtzorg] model of self-managing teams into the NHS”, the cross-bench peer said these “have foundered, because the NHS culture cannot seem to cope with giving staff the autonomy required”.

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Source: HSJ, 23 February 2022