The time has come to make a shift into what this report calls ‘the Age of Intermediate Care’. The pandemic has proved to be a lightbulb moment in recognising this, building on what has been learned over the previous 20 years. For the first time, there is now unanimity on the strategic importance of Intermediate Care across the health and care sector.

However, the importance of this unanimity was underplayed in the white paper* and has not been properly recognised elsewhere. To capture the zeitgeist, in early 2021 ADASS and IMPOWER collaborated with leaders from across the health and care sector to discuss the future of Intermediate Care and feed into the content of this report.

This report argues that it is possible to start making this shift today. While challenges around funding are unlikely to be resolved overnight, that should not put the prioritisation of Intermediate Care on hold. In particular, making changes to culture and behaviours provides a huge opportunity to move things forwards. This report also sets out how such opportunities can be realised, for the benefit of people and the system as a whole.