By Sir John Oldham, Chair of the Independent Commission on Whole Person Care (2014)
The emphasis of this report is recommendations for
an incoming Government in 2015. They are built on
three themes: giving meaningful power to people
using the health and care system; reorienting the
whole system around the true needs of the population
in the 21st century; and, addressing the biases in the
established system that prevent necessary change
happening. For too long health and social care have
been considered separately. They are inextricably
linked. However we do not believe the answer includes
yet another major structural reform at this time. The
scale of recent reforms so damaged the NHS and care
system that we believe it would not survive intact from
a further dose of structural change. We are not saying
that the current structures are right, or that they won’t
need to change in the future – they aren’t and they
on national organisations. However, relationships and
culture trump structures. We should not focus now on
what the structures are, but the relationships among
them, the people who work in them, and what they do.
This is the essence of care and what really matters.
These changes may not be as tangible and headline
grabbing as scrapping and creating organisations.
Arguably they are, taken together, more radical.