A new health and social care context in Wales: Promoting resilience through a shift in perspective and different relationships

Abstract

Purpose

The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 provide a direction of travel for all public services in Wales and a framework for delivering the aspirations in the legislation. Although specifically referring to social care, both pieces of legislation are as relevant to the NHS as they are to other public bodies, providing an opportunity for NHS Wales and local government, in particular, to be equal partners in making a difference to the people and communities they serve. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A viewpoint paper.

Findings

In Wales the time is right to do things differently in health and social care, so the authors will reflect on why current services are struggling and propose an approach that is rooted in communities rather than in specialities. The authors suggest developing a centre of gravity in the community through a multi-agency collaboration to achieve the greatest health, social care and economic impact.

Originality/value

Attention needs to be directed to supporting people, communities and frontline workers to become more resilient, rather than our current focus on specialist services.

Citation

Greenwell, S. and Antebi, D. (2017), "A new health and social care context in Wales: Promoting resilience through a shift in perspective and different relationships", Journal of Integrated Care, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 265-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICA-05-2017-0013