Caring about social care

The NDG reflects on the relationship between the NHS and social care and the importance of using data. She also outlines the value of Caldicott Guardians to organisations handling social care data.

Dr Nicola Byrne, National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care

As I write this in the early days of the COVID inquiry, I’m looking forward to the questions it will raise about the relationship between the NHS and social care. I am very much hoping it will provide insights on how we can improve social care by making better use of resources, better decisions and better use of data.

Historically at least, health always takes the limelight. ‘We make people better when they get sick’ is an easier, more engaging (more pleasingly dramatic, even) tale for those of us in health to tell, than its equivalent of ‘We support people to live well and be active in their communities’.

Reflecting on the challenges during the COVID pandemic should give us all pause to consider how we want health services and social care services to work together to support individuals. We may be emerging from the public health emergency period of the pandemic, but we know that the relationship between health and social care is critical in ‘normal’ times - and that humanity will face pandemics again.

Recently listening to discussions at a Health Service Journal forum on Data and Analytics, I was again struck by the long-known but awkward truth that if we want more people’s health to improve, we need to invest more in social care and social determinants of health, such as housing, work, the natural environment, our food environment, and meaningful social connection.

Ensuring the appropriate resourcing of social care requires potentially politically contentious decisions. In the absence of substantial additional funding, questions may need to be asked about the diversion of funds from organisations labelled ‘health’ to ‘care’, or even beyond.