NHS Boards and Local Authorities make significant investment decisions that determine the way that health and adult social care services are delivered to meet the needs of the Scottish public. The pressures of demographic change and economic challenge mean those decisions are even more important. It is particularly crucial to have an agreed local approach for ensuring that existing and future resources can be effectively realigned to support new models of care.
The Integrated Resource Framework is being developed by the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and COSLA, through the National Shifting the Balance of Care Delivery Group. More effective integration can improve people's experience of services, and enable better models of care to be provided without necessarily incurring additional cost.
Partnerships must be in a position to make investment choices informed by a comprehensive understanding of current resource and activity patterns, across the whole system. The aim of the Integrated Resource Framework is to support partners to achieve this goal.
The Integrated Resource Framework will be further developed in a number of test sites. The test sites will also provide evidence of which combination of incentives, relationships, mechanisms and measures can deliver improved integration in a health, care and support system, and demonstrate improved outcomes.