Four things we learnt at Confed

Labour plans to heap pressure on the better care fund

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham used his conference speech to try and sell his vision for a “single, fully integrated” health and social care system to NHS managers – but he did not spell out the crucial details of how this would work in reality.

We did learn however that Labour plans to rachet up the pressure on the government’s own flagship integration policy, the better care fund. Mr Burnham said it was in danger of giving “integration a bad name” and of tipping the NHS over a financial cliff next year.

Mr Burnham also warned more money for the NHS would not be Labour’s “first response” to addressing the health services challenges.

Simon Stevens really is the Messiah, and a smart alec

Simon Stevens’ speech at the NHS Confederation was greeted with the anticipated warmth - pleasing both those wanting to keep local hospital services open, and those who think lots of them really need to be closed. The cushion of joy which has accompanied his arrival made for prescious little open questioning of the potential contradictions and loose ends in his sermons.

The audience was also understandably wowed by Mr Stevens’ enormous brain and unashamedly intellectual style, as he whipped out phrases such as “flexibly supporting new models where the commissioner/provider split is differently placed along the demand/supply continuum” here and casually referred to “techno-rationalist activity” there.

Mr Stevens also reiterated his enthusiasm for looking into genotypes and phenotypes - perhaps only so that one day someone will ask to see his own genetic makeup, thus revealing he is, as we all suspect, superhuman.

The NHS Confederation is seeking a funding consensus

NHS Confederation chief executive Rob Webster outlined three “specific asks” he wants politicians of all parties to sign up to before the 2015 general election.

Funding featured prominently in Mr Webster’s wish list. His first ask was for a 10-year NHS funding settlement - the “decade deal” - with real terms growth of the budget over that period. Next, he called for a £2bn annual “transition pot” to pay for service change (an idea previously suggested by former NHS England chief executive Sir David Nicholson).

His final ask was for parity of esteem between physical and mental health services. He specifically called for mental health patients to be given new rights to access services within a set time limit and from a provider of their choice, and for a commitment to fund the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign over the next Parliament.

Norman Lamb wants to legally oblige CCGs and councils to pool budgets

Of the three politicians who addressed the NHS Confederation conference this week, Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb came closest to revealing a big new health policy. Mr Lamb said he wanted his party’s as yet unwritten election manifesto to argue for a “legal obligation” on NHS commissioners and local authorities to pool the entire health and social care budgets for their local areas.

The minister said the policy would not be a “top-down reorganisation” but about “local areas deciding how to maximise the potential of a pooled budget”.