Historical divisions between hospitals and family doctors, between physical and mental health, and between NHS and council services, have resulted in too many people experiencing disjointed care. All too often, it has been those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and communities who have borne the brunt of disjointed care delivery, experiencing worse health outcomes than others.
Integrating both health and care has become a central mission both for the government and the NHS, with a clear focus on recently established integrated care systems (ICSs) as the driver of change.
Having been in development since 2018, ICSs will take up new statutory footing in July, providing a legal obligation to deliver joined up care and arrange services along a place-based approach. This will help ensure that decisions about how services are arranged should be made as closely as possible to those who use them. For most people their day-to-day health and care needs will be met locally in the town or district where they live or work. Partnership in these ‘places’ is therefore an important building block of integration, often in line with long-established local authority boundaries.
Yet the formal legal constitution of ICSs and their underlying new structures and governance, underpinned by integrated care boards (ICBs), can only be the start of a journey towards a fully realised vision of integrated care. With ICSs soon to be legally independent entities, the focus must now turn to their decision-making processes, and how they choose to adapt their services to meet local population needs.
Within this decision making will come the opportunity for more agile and rapid procurement processes, that allow for a more collaborative approach. Already the Department of Health has sought to support ICSs in their decisions, and has recently conducted a consultation on a new approach to arranging services – the Provider Selection Regime – which should make it easier to develop stable collaboration and to reduce some of the costs associated with the current procurement rules. Chris Skidmore MP, Research Director, Public Policy Projects
