South Yorkshire Primary Care Knowledge Services | TRFT Library & Knowledge Service
via NHS Confederation
This paper captures the learning from a masterclass series, delivered jointly by the NHS Confederation and Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, on how integrated care systems and industry can work better together. It was developed, researched and written by both organisations.
Full paper: Partnering with purpose: how integrated care systems and industry can work better together
via NHS Confederation
NHS England has outlined plans to develop an improvement approach – NHS IMPACT – to support continuous improvement. There are also ambitions for integrated care systems to become ‘self-improving systems’.
This report, written and researched by Sir Chris Ham and jointly commissioned by the NHS Confederation, the Health Foundation and the Q community, reviews the experience of a number of ICSs identified as being at the forefront of this work, focusing on the approaches they have taken and the results achieved.
Full report: Improving health and care at scale: learning from the experience of systems
Key points: Improving health and care at scale: learning from the experience of systems
This NHS Confederation report examines the progress that local systems have made, and opportunities for further development.
As integrated care systems (ICSs) mark the first anniversary as formal partnerships, this report examines the progress that local systems have made, opportunities for further development and the areas where ICSs require action and commitment from national partners in order to ensure that they are able to effectively deliver for the population that they serve.
The report shows that ICSs have got off to a strong start in a difficult operating environment – one that has been marked by one of the most challenging winters on record, rising demand for care, a cost-of-living crisis, ongoing industrial action, and reductions in the running costs of ICBs that materialised just seven months into their existence as statutory bodies. Whilst ICS leaders and their partner organisations are positive about the progress that local systems have made, a number of barriers are reported that are impeding their progress and which require action from government and national bodies. The top three are: staff shortages and the lack of an equivalent long-term workforce plan for social care; a lack of funding for social care; and NHS finances, including unexpected cuts to ICB running costs and an ineffective capital regime.
Full report: The state of integrated care systems 2022/23: Riding the storm
Care England
This study seeks to investigate how Integrated Care Systems have developed since July 2022, with a specific focus on how they have managed and overcome pressures associated with the planning, coordination and commissioning of health and care services. Understanding these systems and their key pressure points will allow wider system partners to steer improvement across regions through best practices and partnerships across both short and long-term pressures.
Full report: From inception to implementation: A year of Integrated Care Systems
via The King’s Fund
District councils can make a significant difference to the health and wellbeing of local residents through the various functions that they are responsible for, and are indispensable strategic partners in delivering population health improvements.
This report from The King’s Fund contains interviews with district council officers and integrated care board (ICB) staff in four sites from around England to better understand the current relationships between local government and ICBs. It also looks at what good practice looks like, what enables it and the outcomes it produces.
Full report: Driving better health outcomes through integrated care systems: The role of district councils
This stocktake is intended to inform integrated care boards (ICBs), system leaders and NHS England on the experience of ICS medicines optimisation so far – the opportunities that exist, the barriers experienced, what support those working in medicines optimisation need now and ultimately what the vision for medicines optimisation could achieve.
This stocktake report suggests four immediate priority areas of focus for ICBs to achieve this shift in medicines optimisation:
Full report: Taking stock: the experience of medicines optimisation in ICSs
via The King’s Fund
The independent review of integrated care systems (ICSs) led by Patricia Hewitt, published earlier this month, reinforces the crucial role that ICSs have to play in prevention of ill health. But while there is widespread agreement that this is important, what has sometimes been less clear is exactly what that role should look like, and how it is distinct from the role of local authority public health teams.
It’s a key question as ICS leaders grapple with the wider issue of what should happen at system, place and neighbourhood level. Recent examples from tobacco control highlight how ICSs can complement and reinforce work at other levels and help deliver potentially significant population health benefits by doing so.
Full detail: Prevention at scale through ICSs: lessons from tobacco control
Department of Health and Social Care
This review set out to consider the oversight and governance of integrated care systems (ICSs). Each ICS has an integrated care board (ICB), a statutory organisation responsible for developing a plan for meeting the health needs of the population, managing the NHS budget and arranging for the provision of health services in the ICS area. ICBs include representatives from local authorities, primary care and NHS trusts and foundation trusts.
The review covered ICSs in England and the NHS targets and priorities for which ICBs are accountable, including those set out in the government’s mandate to NHS England. The government is now considering the recommendations made by the review.
Full detail: Hewitt Review: an independent review of integrated care systems
See also:
The House of Commons Health & Social Care Committee’s report into new partnerships aimed at delivering joined-up health and care services is calling for the Government and NHS England to address key concerns if an opportunity to deliver real change is to be realised.
The inquiry, with a focus on autonomy and accountability, found genuine enthusiasm for the potential of ICSs to deliver on challenges facing the health and care sectors. However, MPs warn of a serious lack of clarity in some areas with risks that acute short-term pressures could be given priority over longer term ambitions such as preventing ill-health.
MPs also express concern that the success of the restructuring programme could be jeopardised if NHS England continued to take a “command and control” approach. The Report says it is vital that the Government and NHS England should not dictate how ICSs deliver local outcomes.
Full report: Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability
Report summary: Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability
See also: Urgent action needed to ensure opportunities of new health care restructure are realised, warn MPs
Maximising the benefits of research: Guidance for integrated care systems | NHS England
This guidance sets out what good research practice looks like. It supports integrated care systems (ICSs) to maximise the value of their duties around research for the benefit of their population’s health and care and, through co-ordination across ICSs, for national and international impact.
It supports integrated care boards, integrated care partnerships and their partners to develop a research strategy that aligns to or can be incorporated into their integrated care strategy, and helps them and their workforce to build on existing research initiatives and activities across health and social care to improve sector-wide performance and best practice.
Full detail: Maximising the benefits of research: Guidance for integrated care systems
Primary Care News 