National Voices’ response to: The Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee

In February, The Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee published its call for evidence, inviting the public to provide their views on the delivery of integrated primary and community care services as part of its inquiry. We are pleased to share that we responded to the call, supporting the integration agenda and acceptance of the case for integration of services across the NHS with social care and beyond.  

In our response, we determined that the fundamental success measure of the integration agenda should be whether the experience of people who use health and care services improves, sharing our shared vision for integrating care in partnership with key organisations across the health and care system.  

We also drew from conversations with disabled people, and people with lived experience of long term conditions, lack of continuity of care and the complexity of navigating the health and care system are recurring issues, naming more joined-up services as a priority.  

While we sought to focus our response on issues related to the integration of primary care and community health services, we recognise that integration across the whole system matters. The same core principles need to apply right across NHS and to the integration of the NHS offer with social care services. Achieving full integration from the perspective of people who use services, remains some way off.