Joint finance is money allocated by the Department of Health to NHS authorities to promote policies of inter-agency collaboration which prevent people being admitted to hospital or facilitate earlier discharge from hospital or save on NHS resources generally. Worries have been expressed that...

The economic theory of principal and agent is examined to assess its suitability for application to the world of social care. Principal and agent theory hinges on the bases of two individuals, the principal, who is ill-informed and the agent, who is informed. The principal hires the agent to act...

The allocation of resources to health and social care agencies for services for people with learning disabilities has long been a source of debate and disagreement, centring around the failure of the balance of financing to reflect the increasing consensus that the overwhelming need of people...

This paper is concerned with the provision of long-stay care for the elderly in a district Health Authority. The major alternative forms of care compared are NHS long-stay hospital and the use of "contract beds" in private nursing homes. "Contract beds" are beds occupied by NHS patients and paid...

The objective of this paper is to cost the schemes currently in operation. The costs have been calculated on a real resource basis (with the exception of the loss of leisure time voluntarily surrended by ambulance staff, instructors, nurses and clinicians, although the effects of this omission...