Closer integration of health and social care has been the holy grail of policy-makers for decades. From attempts by James Callaghan's government to more closely align the work of health authorities and councils, to the 1999 Health Act, efforts to pull down the ‘Berlin Wall' dividing health and care have mostly failed.

But in recent years, two factors have combined to give the integration push added impetus, giving rise to the raft of government sponsored vanguard and pioneer programmes and the Better Care Fund.