Balancing act

A DH discussion paper on personal health budgets sets the scene for the programme, which will be rolled out from April 2014. Reflecting on the experience of the Netherlands, an article in the BMJ offers some wisdom based on having learned the hard way. At a recent conference, deputy head of NHS Commissioning Andrew Sanderson proffered the warning that personal health budgets did not provide "an open ended system of entitlement" and that there would need to be a robust way of managing demand. There's also a paper from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services that looks at the position of young carers in the era of personalisation.

Joined up thinking

The need to integrate adult social care and health care is made from an economic viewpoint by the Audit Commission in a briefing and accompanying benchmarking tool. A systematic review of integrated working between health services and care homes finds a rather limited field of evidence, with integration happening mostly at patient level and very much health service led. Trafford PCT's faltering efforts to develop integrated care are analysed in a report from the Nuffield Trust. A batch of articles from the journal of integrated care examine inclusion of people with sight loss, a pilot in Norfolk addressing teenage pregnancy rates and the various models of integration used in Devon. RCGP offers guidance on commissioning integrated urgent and emergency care.