Health integration white paper briefing for housing associations

The government has published its health and social care integration white paper, Joining Up Care for People, Places and Populations, which aims to bring the NHS and local government together to improve care and value for money, allowing people to receive “the right care in the right place at the right time”, and join up services.

The government’s vision is that integration makes a positive impact on population health through a shift to prevention, addresses people’s needs promptly and improves the experience of care. They want to incentivise organisations to collectively prioritise upstream interventions for individuals and communities, and increasingly allocate resource to improve population health and address disparities.

Importantly, housing is an area that has been identified as being essential to ensure this joined-up provision of services. There are some opportunities and challenges for housing associations in this white paper.

This briefing identifies those opportunities and challenges.