Creating customer value in health and social care services through co-location

This paper explores a radically different way of delivering services to and creating value for vulnerable adults with complex health and social care needs. The societal complexities of today’s world are inextricably linked and cannot be unilaterally resolved by any one professional, agency or sector. This paper explores the additional value that co-located and integrated services across statutory, independent and voluntary organisations in health and social care could deliver. The ethical, political and structural issues for organisations and clients involved in such collaborative arrangements have been investigated. A qualitative paradigm based on in-depth expert interviews has been adopted. The chosen sample includes a heterogeneous, cross sectional representation of organisations operating within the Health and Social Care sector. The data was analysed using a selective and axial coding approach. The study found that the desire and necessity for an integrated or co-located system for vulnerable adults exists. However, despite forty years of governmental legislation and incentives, ring fenced funding and policy making it is yet unclear if such arrangements genuinely add value; successful models of co-location and integration are not widespread. This is largely attributed to set of well documented issues that beset such partnerships and which have remained unchanged over time.