Working better across teams to improve health and care for all

Healthwatch England analysed over 4,808 people's experience of integrated care to support the development of a longterm vision for the NHS to work better, through collaboration and partnership working, to improve health and care for all.

By enabling collaborative, partnership-based working, integration provides good value to patients by: 

1. Supporting the health and care system to understand their needs as a whole person. 

When everyone involved in a person’s health and care journey is working together effectively, the system can respond holistically to patients’ needs. We heard how patients want to be understood as whole people; this includes being responsive to personal circumstances, supporting them to live their lives as fully as possible, considering their medical history, and sharing this holistic information effectively between other professionals and teams. 

2. Making it easier for them to navigate the system. 

When everyone in a local system is working collaboratively, health and care professionals have a better understanding of the whole system. This ensures they can better support people to navigate the system, helping patients to get the help they need from the right people. In turn, this reduces the time patients spend navigating a complex system alone. We heard about how patients value accessibility, ensuring that all people can access the system without barriers; efficiency, minimizing the time they spend navigating the health and care system; and both proactive and two-way communication, ensuring that they are kept up to date and can contact helpful people within the system. 

3. Signposting them to local and community resources. 

When the health and care system nurtures positive working relationships with community partners, it can support people to access and use local resources. This helps people get the support, advice, prevention, and companionship they need. We heard how people value effective signposting from the health and care system to community organisations, how people want to be empowered to access helpful resources independently, and how people want to both contribute to and establish community resources. 

4. Supporting them to make efficient and cost-effective use of health and care resources. Good integration helps the system to allocate resources, ensuring that people access health and care in an efficient and cost-effective way. Across the different themes, we heard how people value efficiency, including efficient administration, processing, navigation, and delivery. 

In 2019, we asked what people wanted from the next ten years of the NHS. We heard how people wanted to be seen as whole people, for carers to be more involved, better coordination around people’s needs, and more collaborative working. Integration is delivering better patient experiences in areas of the system that have integrated successfully. We heard positive stories about how integration has delivered better value for patients, supporting them to get timely access to health and care in a way that suits them.