The Care Integration top 50 revealed

For too long health and social care have been divided into silos which has hindered the effective delivery of person centred care.

This division has also led to duplication of organisations and, as a result of this, inefficiency.

• See the top 50 care integration leaders in a free PDF

Any situation in which older people spend unnecessarily long in hospital due to the failure to draw up care packages or care decisions are dominated by the acute sector, which treats symptoms rather than promoting good health, cannot continue.

‘For too long healthcare has been divided into silos which has hindered the effective delivery of person centred care’

The health and social care system faces an intensifying challenge: the number of people with complex care needs is soaring but budgets are stagnant.

The onus has to be on improving quality of services, and with it the safety of patients or service users, rather than protecting organisations’ longstanding territory.

It was in light of this that LGC and HSJ sought to identify those who are at the cutting edge of change. In partnership with Nutricia, we asked our readers to work with us to identify the greatest pioneers. They could be in local government, NHS or Whitehall, or the third or private sectors. All were united by their innovative outlook and willingness to overturn the status quo.

Inspiring greatness

Integration leaders’ work can inspire others to greatness; indeed, it has to for the health and care system to overcome its greatest challenges. We hope that our list will encourage those experiencing difficulties to discover how their counterparts overcame the obstacles that they faced.

‘The onus has to be on improving quality of services, rather than protecting organisations’ longstanding territory’

Inevitably our list will provoke debate and, it is quite possible, disagreement. We hope it does.

One thing is certain: the integration of our care system is long overdue and the debate about how it can be made a reality must continue. However, the best work to integrate services needs to be celebrated.

I wish to thank Nutricia and all of our judges who gave up their time to enable us to identify the finest candidates. Thanks also to the readers of both titles and social media users who nominated pace-setters for the Care Integration 50.

The judging process

HSJ and Local Government Chronicle launched the Care Integration 50 to identify the 50 most influential people involved in the integration of health and social care services.

As part of the project, which is supported by Nutricia, the two titles appointed a panel of judges with vast experience across the health and local government sectors to use their knowledge to assess who is doing the most to shape and lead the integration of services.

Readers of both titles were asked for nominations of people who are doing the most to drive integration, especially in individual geographical areas.

Once the nominations had been gathered, LGC and HSJ invited the panel to select the final 50 integrators at a judging session in London, putting the top 10 in order of influence.

The judges assessed candidates on a number of criteria.

These included the effectiveness of their leadership; whether their work had clearly impacted on the integration of services in their local health economy; if their projects had secured buy-in from other organisations; and if their work had resulted in better outcomes for service users and patients.

Another key factor considered was how innovative their approach to health and social care integration had been, and to what extent they were influencing and helping to support their peers.

Our list includes people with a strong track record in driving person centred coordinated care, those currently delivering it and those whose ideas have the scope to bring it about in future.