A former care minister has warned advocates of community budgets that devolved and joined-up health and social care will remain a pipe dream while the 'NHS empire' continues to run the Department of Health (DoH).

Ivan Lewis, a health minister under the Labour government, told a fringe event at the party's annual conference in Liverpool that senior NHS officials effectively run the DoH, and that the civil servants involved are barely interested in joined up working with local government and its partners.