A Scoping Review ofthe Benefits of Integrated Care at Service User Level in UK Health and Social Care System

Background: The clinical commissioners were constituted to ensure patient centeredness and to tackle health inequalities for the local population. The health and social care act 2012 was a catalyst in the integration and development of the health and social care strategic partnership working. This was aimed to facilitate a major shift from competition to cooperation. Purpose: What are the end-user benefits of the integrated care system developed through health and social care strategic partnership? Methods: A scoping review is conducted to explore the available sources of information on the service user benefits of an integrated form of working at the grass root level. This review is an end user focussed study, specific to the service user perspectives. Results: The individual organisations are still budget driven and the care planning assessments such as decision support tool are complex for the end user to understand. Even though there are several studies and government documents available focussing on macro- level integration with benefits on cost aspects, there are questions on the end user benefits.There is scant information regarding the benefits of collaboration at the end-user level. Conclusion: The preliminary results conclude that there are strategic gains in strategic-level integration such as financial savings and tackling staff shortages.However, the service user benefit needs to be further explored. The work is conceptual and preliminary and there is scope for further exploration of the issue in discussion empirically.