The joint finance scheme in Hampshire 1976-1982

Abstract

The changing pattern of health care in the later twentieth century in England, with a need to care for more elderly people and those with chronic disease or disability, has recently forced increased consideration of how the administratively separate health and social services might collaborate more closely over caring for those who need a combination of health and social care. The 1974 reorganisation of the National Health Service produced a formal system of collaboration through Joint Consultative Committees and Joint Care Planning Teams and in 1976 the joint finance scheme was set up offering a sum of money available jointly to health and social services departments to promote community based schemes.

The objectives of this research were to examine the working of the joint finance scheme in a particular area from 1976 - 1982 and to evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme in promoting collaboration and innovation. To do this it was necessary first to define and operationalise the concepts of collaboration and innovation. The fieldwork consisted of observation of a joint committee of officers of health and social services departments concerned with allocating joint finance, interviews with selected personnel, examination of records, and two case studies of individual joint financed projects.

The study shows that there were both economic and structural factors, and factors in the design of the joint finance scheme itself which limited collaboration. Initial expectations of the scheme were too great. However, it did provide a stimulus to collaboration and to some degree to innovation and was particularly important in offering the opportunity for a small number of key officers to learn to collaborate over a period.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record