Integration aims to put the needs of people at the centre of how services are organised and delivered. Models of integration vary.

Co-ordinating resources or pooling budgets between health and social care services can enable joint working. The four nations of the UK have introduced different financial arrangements to support integration.

Data sharing, as well as different incentives and employment terms between sectors, pose challenges for integration.

Assessing the effectiveness of integration schemes is difficult. Evaluation tends to focus on whether integration has relieved pressure on services, such as reducing emergency hospital admissions, which data suggest is not routinely achieved. However, integration may improve user outcomes and experiences, but data to assess these are not consistently collected.”