The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish Government, Welsh Government or Northern Ireland Executive. It oversees the English National Health Service (NHS). The department is led by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with three ministers of state and three parliamentary under-secretaries of state.
An NHS foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care. As of March 2019 there were 151 foundation trusts.
Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for managing performance, enacting directives and implementing health policy as required by the Department of Health at a regional level.
Care in the Community is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional care was the target of widespread criticism during the 1960s and 1970s, but it was not until 1983 that the government of Margaret Thatcher adopted a new policy of care after the Audit Commission published a report called 'Making a Reality of Community Care' which outlined the advantages of domiciliary care.
Monitor was an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health, responsible between 2004 and 2016 for ensuring healthcare provision in NHS England was financially effective. It was the sector regulator for health services in England. Its chief executive was Ian Dalton and it was chaired by Dido Harding. Monitor was merged with the NHS Trust Development Authority to form NHS Improvement on 1 April 2016.
Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May 2011, they also provided community health services directly. Collectively PCTs were responsible for spending around 80 per cent of the total NHS budget. Primary care trusts were abolished on 31 March 2013 as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, with their work taken over by clinical commissioning groups.
A mental health trust provides health and social care services for people with mental health disorders in England.
Health and Social Care (HSC) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Northern Ireland. Although having been created separately to the National Health Service (NHS), it is nonetheless considered a part of the overall national health service in the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Executive through its Department of Health is responsible for its funding, while the Public Health Agency is the executive agency responsible for the provision of public health and social care services across Northern Ireland. It is free of charge to all citizens of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom provide emergency care to people with acute illness or injury and are predominantly provided free at the point of use by the four National Health Services (NHS) of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is only free to UK residents and a charge may be made to those not entitled to free NHS care.
The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Blackburn with Darwen tPCT was an English National Health Service primary care trust, responsible for commissioning & purchasing of health care in Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire. It came under the North West of England's NHS strategic health authority (SHA). It was abolished in April 2013.
Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service as health is a devolved matter; there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.
In England, social care is defined as the provision of social work, personal care, protection or social support services to children or adults in need or at risk, or adults with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or poverty. The main legal definitions flow from the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, with other provisions covering disability and responsibilities to informal carers. That provision may have one or more of the following aims: to protect people who use care services from abuse or neglect, to prevent deterioration of or promote physical or mental health, to promote independence and social inclusion, to improve opportunities and life chances, to strengthen families and to protect human rights in relation to people's social needs.
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for the most extensive reorganisation of the structure of the National Health Service in England to date. It removed responsibility for the health of citizens from the Secretary of State for Health, which the post had carried since the inception of the NHS in 1948. It abolished primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) and transferred between £60 billion and £80 billion of "commissioning", or healthcare funds, from the abolished PCTs to several hundred clinical commissioning groups, partly run by the general practitioners (GPs) in England. A new executive agency of the Department of Health, Public Health England, was established under the act on 1 April 2013.
Healthcare in Dorset was primarily the responsibility of Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group until July 2022. Dorset County Council is leading in the development of an electronic health record, to be called the Dorset Care Record, provided by Orion Health. It is intended to enable all health and social care providers to share records.
Healthcare in Cornwall was until July 2022 the responsibility of Kernow clinical commissioning group, until it got replaced by Integrated care system, as a result of the Health and Care Act 2022. As far as the NHS is concerned, Cornwall includes the Isles of Scilly.
The NHS internal market was established by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, to separate the roles of purchasers and providers within the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. Previously, healthcare was provided by regional health authorities which were given a budget to run hospitals and community health services in their area. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 was intended to open up the internal market to external competition. The 2019 NHS Long Term Plan called for the establishment of integrated care systems across England by 2021, effectively ending the internal market.
In England, a sustainability and transformation plan (STP) is a non-statutory requirement which promotes integrated provision of healthcare, including purchasing and commissioning, within each geographical area of the National Health Service. The plans were introduced in 2016 but by 2018 had been overtaken by progress towards integrated care systems.
In England, an integrated care system (ICS) is a statutory partnership of organisations who plan, buy, and provide health and care services in their geographical area. The organisations involved include the NHS, local authorities, voluntary and charity groups, and independent care providers. The NHS Long Term Plan of January 2019 called for the whole of England to be covered by ICSs by April 2021. On 1 July 2022, ICSs replaced clinical commissioning groups in England.
The Health and Care Act 2022 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which was created to dismantle many of the structures established by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Many of the proposals were drafted under the leadership of Simon Stevens and are intended to reinforce the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan.
