However, further action is needed to improve oversight of the Fund by health boards and local authorities according to a report published today by the Auditor General for Wales. 

In 2019, we published a Review of the Integrated Care Fund (ICF), which was set up to enable regional partnerships to better integrate health, social care and housing. The review highlighted the ICF’s positive impact on improving integration and partnership working but also identified weaknesses in the way the fund was managed. We made six recommendations for the Welsh Government which it accepted in full. The Welsh Government replaced the ICF with the Health and Social Care Regional Integration Fund (RIF) in April 2022. The capital elements were replaced with a new Housing with Care Fund. 

Today’s report looks at how the Welsh Government has implemented our previous recommendations and describes the positive impact of the RIF which during 2024-25 supported 181,922 people to live independently through management of their health and care needs. 

Our 2019 report has clearly driven improvements in the Welsh Government's management of public money. The Welsh Government has fully implemented five of our six previous recommendations and partially implemented the remaining one. It has improved the timeliness of its decision-making and monitoring information, strengthened its oversight and supported Regional Partnership Boards (RPBs) to share learning. 

The Welsh Government is increasingly allocating funds through RPBs. Between 2021–22 and 2026–27, RPBs will have had access to £1.45 billion of Welsh Government funding with £731 million coming through the RIF fund. As statutory members of RPBs, health boards and local authorities are responsible for overseeing RPB activity and how RIF funding is being used. However, our report identified some weaknesses in that oversight. We also found that the Welsh Government could do more to make sure that those bodies comply with its guidance on oversight.