Dignity at the heart of care

The Quality in Care team at Buckinghamshire County Council has the role of ensuring that the county's social care services are the highest quality. I lead the team here and we look at how we can focus on dignity and wellbeing in the care system.

Setting up services

The initial funding of Buckinghamshire's Quality in Care team was through Section 256 of the 2006 NHS Act, the provision which transfers money from NHS budgets to local authorities to gain health benefits through support of the adult social care sector. At that stage, the integration of adult social care and healthcare, was yet to really get started. The commissioning of Bucks Quality in Care which began back in 2010 saw health and social care coming together to support the quality of care delivered. It was a small early step in service integration.