Bob Hudson: Local government should approach health white paper with caution Matt Hancock’s proposals centralise power and have surprisingly little to say about adult social care, writes the visiting professor in public policy at the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent. Proposals to reform the NHS are now out and for once there seems to be an acknowledgement of the importance of local government in general, and adult social care in particular. The title of the white paper - Integration and Innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all – encapsulates this sentiment. There’s much to like. The market system created by the 2012 Health & Social Care Act is to be dismantled; collaboration is to take precedence over competition. New statutory integrated care systems (ICS) will aim to join up the NHS, primary care, local government and the voluntary sector in order to promote system-working at ‘place’ level, probably a local government footprint. Moreover there will be a ‘duty to collaborate’ placed upon these local partners. This is enticing, but the local government world would do well to approach it with caution for several reasons.