Other General Responsibilities

Under section 3 of the Act the Local Authority must carry out its Care and Support responsibilities with the aim of ensuring the integration of social care provision with health provision when it considers that this would:

1. Promote the Wellbeing of people and carers in the local area;
2. Contribute to the prevention or delay of the development of needs for Care and Support of people in the area;
3. Contribute to the prevention or delay of the development of needs for Support of carers in the area;
4. Improve the quality of Care and Support for people in the area (including the quality of outcomes being met by services); and
5. Improve the quality of Support for carers in the area (including the quality of outcomes being met by services).

The NHS is subject to similar duties under the NHS Act. To ensure greater integration of services, the Local Authority should consider how it can promote integration, for example through:

1. Planning;
2. Commissioning;
3. Assessment and Information and Advice;
4. Delivery or provision of Care and Support;
5. Joint strategic needs assessment;
6. Integrating service provision and combining and aligning processes;
7. The use of pooled budgets;
8. The development of joint commissioning arrangements; and
9. Integrated management or provision of services.

Under section 5 of the Care Act the Local Authority has a duty to promote an efficient and effective market of services for meeting Care and Support needs in the local area. The market should ensure that any person requiring such services:

1. Has a variety of providers supplying a variety of services to choose from;
2. Has a variety of high quality services to choose from; and
3. Has sufficient information to make an informed decision about how to meet the needs in question.

This is primarily a Commissioning responsibility under the Act. However, to fulfil this duty to facilitate the market the Local Authority must ensure that there are effective chains of communication and effective mechanisms for local information sharing between Commissioning, other service areas, people and carers.

For further information about market shaping and the application of this general principle please see Commissioning Responsibilities Under the Act.