- The NHS have been moving towards a regional commissioning approach as opposed to their previous heavily centralised system, they have referred to this as ‘devolution’. The NHS has been facing significant health and social care challenges similar to Australia such as a growing and ageing population and resource constraint. There has been significant pressure on the government and health service leaders to deliver bold reform and drive sustainability.
- Devolution in the UK is part of a large reform agenda integrating health and social care, shifting care out of the hospital and into the community and better prevention of ill-health, a priority for local health and care leaders.
- DevoConnect published a collection of essays in 2019 on the future of health and social care highlighting local leaders faced significant challenges with integration due to the fragmented state and federal system. The reform expected from Devolution should enable progress due to aligning the responsibility, powers and funding for all areas of health care, social care and other public services under ‘one local body’ which in turn allows local leaders to pool budgets and integrate commissioning functions to drive integration. Similarly to devolution, in Australia we are lobbying for Regional commissioning to enable the type of reform that can be delivered at the local level.
How is devolution expected to work? Quilter, Pinner & Antink 2017 Logic underpinning decentralisation in health
