To address the challenge of improving quality and addressing cost pressures within the NHS, the need for integration of social care and healthcare is clear. To do so will require cross-sector collaboration which seeks to collectively solve some of the most pressing social issues of our time. 

In a previous post, Jason Helgerson outlined the obligation healthcare providers have to become  agents for social change. Once healthcare leaders accept this challenge, the next question can be daunting - how?  

The truth is that today's most pressing challenges are far too complex for any single institution to solve. Consider a homeless man, relying on a local shelter for housing, while also using services from an NHS mental health trust. Or a frequent A&E user, who visits the local hospital because of substance abuse rather than for an acute healthcare need and who should be relying on a social service agency program for recovery services. Or even a single parent, whose mental health care directly impacts their child's attendance patterns at school.

All of these individuals use services from different sectors, and yet the lack of systems-level coordination usually results in a lack of progress towards solving the core challenge. But when organisations work together under the right conditions, they can accomplish amazing feats -ending homelessness in large cities, reducing the number of super-users using A&E at high rates, or even moving the dial on student achievement - all at population level. Read more here.