The National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not for profit care and support providers, responds to the report of the independent review of health and adult social care leadership, led by General Sir Gordon Messenger and Dame Linda Pollard. Professor Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of NCF said:
“There is nothing of substance in this report for social care leaders across the country, grappling right now with all of the same challenges around workforce and pressure that those in the NHS experience. Instead, the review focuses on secondary healthcare problems and solutions – it is not the leadership review of health and social care it purports to be. While Sir Gordon Messenger is right in his assertion that there is support for greater parity of investment in social care leadership, it is a completely wasted opportunity that this report does not highlight how and where that should happen.
“With just over three weeks to go until the new Integrated Care Systems are put on a statutory footing, it does little to inspire confidence. The report struggles to identify how to translate a single message about collaborative leadership into action across an entire system that stands or falls on collaboration. In a world that stresses the indisputable value of integration, it can no longer be acceptable to say that the absence of ‘identifiable levers’ to create change means that vast swathes of primary health and all of social care are out of reach in relation to national solutions, or indeed a reflective commentary on their current or future requirements.”
End
Note to Editors:
- The National Care Forum brings together 160 of the UK’s leading social care organisations, representing large numbers of care providers, offering thousands of services across the country, which are not for profit and always at the heart of community provision. Collectively, these organisations deliver more than £2.2 billion of social care and support to more than 217,000 people in 8,300 settings. The NCF membership body collectively employs more than 117,000 staff and 14,000 volunteers.
- Independent report: Health and social care review: leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future
- In October 2021 the government announced a review into leadership across health and social care, led by former Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger and supported by Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust.
- The review focused on the best ways to strengthen leadership and management across health and with its key interfaces with adult social care in England. 7 recommendations have been accepted by the government with a plan to implement the recommendations.
- More information is available on the National Care Forum at www.nationalcareforum.org.uk. @NCFCareForum @vicrayner @NCF_Liz
- For enquiries, please contact Edna Petzen edna.petzen@nationalcareforum.org.uk
; 
