WIDER POLICIES
Welsh Health Policy

Key policies:

• Better health, better Wales
• Alternative Provider Medical Services  
• National Enhanced Service for Homeless people

Health policy is fully devolved to the Welsh Assembly.

Local health strategies have recently been developed by each local health board.  These strategies were, amongst other subjects, meant to cover health and homelessness.  A brief examination of the twenty two strategies, however, shows that only five of them explicitly refer to homelessness.

Like England, Wales has recently established both a National Enhanced Service for Homeless people and the Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts (see English Health Policy section).  Unlike England, Wales does not offer Personal Medical Services contracts to its GPs.

Overall planning framework

Although no explicit mention is made of homeless people in the Welsh Assembly's key health strategy Better health, better Wales (1998), health is given strategic recognition in the National Homelessness Strategy.

From April 2003, local health boards and local authorities were required to draw up a health, social care and well-being strategy, with their first strategy becoming operational in April 2005.  The 2003 supporting guidance highlighted the need for the strategies to consider homeless people.  It suggested that each local health board looks at the existing local provision for homeless people, examine their health needs and set out how these needs will be met.   However, this guidance does not appear to have been well digested and a brief examination of the twenty two strategies developed shows that only five of them explicitly refer to homelessness.

Health funding in Wales is allocated through the Townsend Formula, a funding formula which is weighted towards the needs of the most deprived areas.  An independent research report undertaken in 2004 looked at specific health needs to see whether these should be given additional weighting within the formula.  Homeless people were one of the groups it considered.   Whilst the report acknowledged the wide range of health problems faced by homeless people, it concluded that the difficulties in getting an accurate estimate of need at a local authority level mean that "further research will probably be required before an adjustment is made to the NHS resource allocation formula to include the needs of homeless people".

Frontline services

Like England, Wales has recently (2004) established both a National Enhanced Service for Homeless people and the Alternative Provider Medical Services contracts (see English Health Policy section).  

Unlike English health policy, Wales does not offer Personal Medical Services contracts to its GPs.  Nor are there walk in centres, as there have been in England since 2000.  Both these services are believed to be particularly useful for homeless people.

Page last modified on 22/06/2006 at 12:01