NHS England, the Local Government Association, Think Local Act Personal and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services today (Thursday) formally invite health and social care leaders to help build a new integrated and personalised commissioning approach for people with complex needs.

Integrated Personal Commissioning is a new voluntary approach to joining up health and social care for people with complex needs. This proposal makes a triple offer to service users, local commissioners and the voluntary sector to bring health and social care spend together at the level of the individual.

Service users will be offered power and improved support to shape care that is meaningful to them. Local authorities and NHS commissioners, and providers will be offered dedicated technical support, coupled with regulatory and financial flexibilities to enable integration. The voluntary sector will be a key partner in designing effective approaches, supporting individuals and driving cultural change.

NHS England, LGA, TLAP and ADASS have therefore today published a joint prospectus inviting expressions of interest (this document is no longer available here but can be found on the National Archives website) from the voluntary sector, providers and commissioners in the IPC programme. The prospectus is supported by a guide to bring people up to date on the latest developments in making care more personalised and integrated.

Simon Stevens, NHS England’s Chief Executive said: “Kate Barker and The King’s Fund commission has today rightly described the need for more integrated health and social care for people who need care and their families. While the longer-term debate on how we get there is crucially important, so too is the need to deliver for people today. That’s why, for the first time since 1948, from next year Integrated Personal Commissioning means we will start offering fully combined health and social care funding, under the direct control of people using those services.”

ADASS President David Pearson said: “We have very much valued the opportunity to contribute to this immensely important initiative which will see personal budgets and Direct Payments – both of which an integral part of the social care offer in recent times – take a massive, decisive and encouraging step forward.”

The move follows a speech by Simon Stevens to the Local Government Association in July 2014.

Personal health budgets were introduced nationally in 2009 by the last government and have continued to grow – 636,000 people already have social care budgets and the NHS is learning from and building on this experience.

The budgets are already available for people who are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare. These patients have had a ‘right to ask’ for a personal health budget since April 2014 and this becomes a ‘right to have’ from October 2014. NHS care will continue to be free for patients at the point of use.

The closing date for IPC applications is 7 November 2014. They must be made jointly by one or more clinical commissioning group and local authorities, with at least one voluntary sector partner.

Local partners are expected to make a clear commitment to implementing new integrated funding models, making information and support available to their target population, and embedding personalisation in their organisations.

“Intertwining the benefits of personal budgets, integrated services and personalised approaches to users of the health and care services in these ways can do nothing but good for all the citizens we serve.”

To see the prospectus in full go to our Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) Programme page.