Chaired by Kathryn Marsden OBE, CEO of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), and Gary Fee, CEO of City & County Healthcare (CCH) Group, the event explored the role adult social care must play in delivering the 10 Year Health Plan.
The discussion came at a critical time. Demand for services has reached historic highs, NHS waiting lists continue to grow, and both health and social care remain under sustained pressure. The 10 Year Health Plan has been billed as the blueprint for fixing these challenges – but concerns remain that social care is being sidelined.
Marsden said:
“The 10 Year Health Plan is framed primarily through an NHS lens, with only passing reference to social care. If the three shifts are to succeed, social care must not only be recognised as integral but also actively positioned as the enabler.”
She argued that success depends on aligning care services with the Plan’s ambitions: embedding social care in neighbourhood health systems, investing in digital tools to connect care pathways, and harnessing prevention capacity.
Fee added:
“Being kept outside the design but inside the delivery doesn’t work. Social care knows what keeps people well, prevents admissions and speeds recovery. That expertise must shape the Plan from the start.”
Other contributors echoed this view. James Maynard, Commercial Director at Access HSC, warned that siloed thinking continues to undermine both sectors:
“We see daily how it blocks the delivery of truly person centred care.”
Daniel Casson of Casson Consulting said social care had the “power to unlock the path” to success by shifting focus towards wellbeing rather than just treating illness.
Fee closed the session by urging providers to step up as equal partners with the NHS:
“You cannot fix a whole system by empowering only half of it. The Plan stands or falls on outcomes, and those outcomes depend on social care. It is time we step forward and help shape a system worthy of the nation’s health.”
