Report identifies unsustainable health and social care pressures

Last Updated: May 9, 2025

In Essex, an independent commission has published a report that identifies unsustainable health and social care pressures. The report also highlights 23 actions to help improve outcomes for Essex residents.

The Essex Caring Communities Commission is calling for radical change in its report by creating a preventative state and stronger connections within local communities. The commission will implement the 23 actions it highlighted in its report, and ensure they are reflected in the proposed creation of a Mayoral Combined County Authority through devolution in Greater Essex.

The suggested actions cover the creation of services, task forces and boards under five commitments – Places, Work, Civil Society, Community Influence and Prevention. The actions include:

• Essex Retirement Service – enable an ageing population to stay active and connected to their communities.
• Multi-agency triaging hubs – enable carers, social workers and healthcare staff from across the sector to work together.
• Office of Prevention withing new mayoral authority – ensure a shift to preventing rather than reacting.
• Housing Board – increase retirement and specialist housing.
• Volunteering Olympics – aims to double the amount of volunteering opportunities.
• Apprenticeship Programme – providing apprenticeship opportunities for care leavers and those with disabilities.
• 50 plus task force – aims to double the participation of over 50’s in the local labour market.

The commission comprises of 11 independent commissioners from the NHS, Salvation Army, political groups, universities and think tanks, and is led by Commission Chair Councillor Beverly Egan.

The commission’s report follows months of meeting with frontline workers, service users, local organisations and regional bodies to understand the pressures they face and identify the opportunities for change.

Councillor Egan, Chair of the Essex Caring Communities Commission, said, ‘We must be honest and recognise the current way of doing things is not sustainable. Reacting to cases, rather than preventing them in the first place, has become the norm.

She continued, ‘As a society, we must ensure the care and support we will all need at some point in our lives is available to everyone.’

Councillor Kevin Bentley, Leader of Essex County Council, said, ‘I welcome this report and thank the commissioners, as well as those who have engaged with them, for producing it.

‘I’m very keen as leader that we look to their future of how we care for people, not just now but in the decades to come. How we care for the most vulnerable in society is one of the most important things any society can do.

‘This report makes clear that things cannot simply continue as they are. The Essex Caring Communities Commission is prepared to radically transform outcomes for residents while addressing the demand on the public services. It’s one of the only reports of its kind in the UK.’

Commissioner Tony Daniels, Territorial Director of Community Services at the Salvation Army, said, ‘This report demonstrates the universal opportunities and challenges that striving to deliver preventative and join-up multi-disciplinary social care services, across a densely populous, complex, and diverse geo-social demographic, presents to local authorities.

‘However, positively, and perceptibly what it raises is ‘evidential hope’ that smarter, reimagined, co-designed and ‘non-reactive’ service delivery, could go a significant way in precipitating the structural paradigm shifts necessary, towards developing sustainable social care and health pathways for future generations.’

Commissioner Pamela Donnelly, Chief Executive of Colchester City Council, said, ‘This report recognises the urgent need for action and the real opportunities we now have to rethink how we support people in Essex. Building stronger local networks and shirting focus to prevention will make a lasting difference.’

Commissioner Tom Abell, Chief Executive of NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board, said, ‘This report is a wake-up call and a blueprint for action. The pressures facing out health and social care services are real and growing, but by working together across communities we have a real opportunity to shift from crisis response to prevention.

He continued, ‘Together, we can build a system that better supports the health and wellbeing of every resident in Essex.’

The report produced in Essex by this independent commission highlights a problem the health and social care sector has across the country. As Kevin Bentley, Leader of Essex County Council, said, ‘It’s one of the only reports of its kind in the UK’ but hopefully won’t be the last.

You can read the whole report here.

In other news, New NICE guideline to help reduce falls has been released.