Harrow Council has approved a comprehensive plan to integrate health and social care services, aiming to improve the well-being of its residents and address health inequalities across the borough. The plan, discussed at a Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Thursday, focuses on closer collaboration between healthcare providers, social services, and community organisations.
The initiative centres around the Better Care Fund (BCF), a government program designed to support the integration of health and social care at the local level. Councillor Jean Lammiman, Portfolio Holder for Adult Services & Public Health, chaired the meeting where the board discussed the final position of the 2024/25 BCF plan and formally approved the 2025/26 BCF plan. The value of the schemes pooled within the BCF in 2025/26 total £33.81m. Funding sources include Disabled Facilities Grants, contributions from the NHS, and the iBCF (Improved Better Care Fund). The BCF 2025-26 Planning Template v1.5 - Harrow 2.0 provides a detailed breakdown of the projected costs and funding sources.
The Better Care Fund 2025_26 Narrative Plan confirms the continuation of schemes delivering strategic priorities and aligning with BCF objectives. This includes protecting core discharge schemes implemented through 2024/25, such as bridging care, care home support schemes, and block care home beds, while maintaining clear accountability with a system-wide impact. The BCF also funds areas that contribute to Harrow's efforts in meeting key metrics, such as disabled facilities grants, assisted technology, short term homecare and step-down beds, and long term care services.
The plan aims to address key challenges identified in Harrow's Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2022-2030), focusing on starting well, living well, and ageing well. It also seeks to shift the focus from sickness to prevention and support people in living independently, transitioning from hospital to home. Harrow's Better Care Fund schemes have been developed to address the key needs identified in the borough's Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2022-2030), JSNA and the key health and wellbeing priorities for Harrow's communities.
Key metrics for 2025-26 include:
- Emergency admissions to hospital for people aged 65+ per 100,000 population
- Average length of discharge delay for all acute adult patients
- Long-term admissions to residential care homes and nursing homes for people aged 65+ per 100,000 population
In addition to the Better Care Fund, the board discussed integrated neighbourhood teams. The Health and Wellbeing Board Report _Integrated Neighbourhood Teams update 003 highlights that London is experiencing a perfect storm
of economic and health inequalities, increasing pressures on the NHS, local authorities and local partners, and reducing capacity to respond, driving further inequality and demand. General Practice in London is facing severe challenges, including a 20% reduction in practices over 10 years, disproportionately impacting disadvantaged communities.
The success of the integrated neighbourhood teams will be measured against 10 core outcomes to be delivered over a 5-year period, monitored through an INT Metrics Dashboard, as outlined in the July Health and Wellbeing Board_Implementing Integrated Neighbourhood Teams Overview Discussi. These include:
- Increase in integrated working across health and social care teams
- Citizens reporting an integrated and coordinated experience from health and care services
- Improvement in key public health measures (obesity, child tooth decay, loneliness, smoking rates, school readiness)
- Improvement in vaccination and screening uptake
- Reduction in A&E attendances from High Intensity Users
- Improvement in hypertension and diabetes management
- Stable housing and employment for people with severe mental illness
- Reduction in emergency hospital admissions due to falls in people over 65
- Reduction in emergency admissions to hospital for Ambulatory Care Sensitive conditions
- Reduction in admissions to permanent residential and care home beds