It aims at "meeting the challenges of integrating health and social care in England in order to keep people healthy for longer".
The intention was to shift resources into social care and community services from the NHS budget in England and so save £1 billion a year by keeping patients out of hospital.
[7] Its second report in February 2017 suggested that the progress of integration and health and social care had been slower and less successful than envisaged, and had not delivered all of the expected benefits for patients, the NHS or local authorities.
[9] Francis Maude praised Inclusion Healthcare at a speech in December 2014 about the Fund saying the company could provide care more cheaply and simply than the NHS.
[15] It also found that 84% of respondents viewed it as either moderate or to a great extent, a key driver of local care integration.
[16] The Department of Health and Social Care in 2019 asserted that the fund had been effective in helping to keep people living independently at home, providing joined-up reablement services, reducing delayed discharges across the system and achieving closer working between the NHS and social care services.