A step change may be needed to the rate of shift to community care

Policy has been aiming to move more care from acute to community settings for at least the last 20 years. While change has happened (e.g. shorter lengths of hospital stay, development of some outreach services) this has been mostly manifested as local initiatives rather than fully planned national implementation. Growth in community-located nurses over the past 20 years has been about the same as the acute hospital growth rate. A big change in patterns is required in order to transfer services, let alone meet the policy objective to 'transform'. Will the next 20 years see the same rate of change or a big step change?

Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.