I often hear people, myself included, casually tossing out the phrase ‘health and social care integration' in a tone that implies "why don't they get on and do it already".

But the unfortunate truth is that integrating health and social care is very far from easy.  History suggests that any form of public service integration has a tendency to grind to a halt at the point when money changes hands; in other words, both sectors need to up their game.