Commentary on Sections Part 5 – Public involvement and local government Health and Wellbeing Boards: functions Section 195 – Duty to encourage integrated working
1196.This section imposes a duty on Health and Wellbeing Boards to encourage integrated working between commissioners of NHS, public health and social care services for the advancement of the health and wellbeing of the local population. A Health and Wellbeing Board must provide advice, assistance or other support in order to encourage partnership arrangements such as the developing of agreements to pool budgets or make lead commissioning arrangements under section 75 of the NHS Act.
1197.Subsection (1) requires a Health and Wellbeing Board, for the purpose of advancing the health and wellbeing of the people in its area, to encourage persons who arrange for the provision of health or social care services in its area to work in an integrated manner.
1198.Subsection (2) requires the Health and Wellbeing Board, in particular, to provide advice, assistance or other support as it thinks appropriate for the purpose of encouraging arrangements under section 75 of the NHS Act. These are arrangements under which, for example, NHS bodies and local authorities agree to exercise specified functions of each other or pool funds.
1199.Subsection (3) enables the Health and Wellbeing Board to encourage persons who arrange for the provision of services related to wider determinants of health (health-related services), such as housing, to work closely with the Board; while subsection (4) enables the Board to encourage such persons to work closely with commissioners of health and social care services. Subsection (6) defines expressions such as “health services”, “health-related services” and “social care services” for the purposes of this section.