Health and social care must work more closely together to provide a health service fit for the future, according to the president of the newly formed Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

ADASS president Anne Williams outlined the association's priorities as commissioning and joint working with primary care; raising the profile of adult social care and health and well-being; individualising social services; and self-directed care and resource allocation.

Ms Williams, who is also strategic director for social services at Salford city council, said it was important to get more understanding in primary care that health and social care are two sides of the same coin.

Join the fight

'Both health and social care need to think before we go off and do something, 'is this actually something that should be done jointly?'', she said. 'We need to join together in the fight to get adequate resource allocation to cover social services and healthcare.

.'Our area is coming under the spotlight now because of the demographic change, the rise in complex disabilities, the rise in public expectations and the drive towards person-centred self-directed care.

'The time is right to no longer see adult social care as the intensive care for people at their most despondent.'

Some trusts have blamed the split between adult and children's social services for delayed discharges in some mental health wards.

Ms Williams said the split has enabled directors to focus on the wider issues because a huge amount of resources had been put into children's social care, including child protection and running children's homes.

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