What have we learned about the role of integrated care partnerships in health and social care?
Now that integrated care partnerships (ICPs) have been up and running in England for well over a year, it is a good time to see what we have learnt so far about their role and how this could develop in future.
The LGA and NHS Confederation spoke to senior ICP leaders across the country – including many councillors – to get their views on the unique contribution of ICPs to what seems like an alphabet soup of organisations and partnership arrangements involved in heath, wellbeing and social care.
We will shortly be publishing a report of the key themes and messages from the interviews. But, given the leading role of many councillors in ICPs, we wanted to give you a sneak preview of some of the findings.
The sheer variation of ICPs in terms of their structure, ways of working, priorities and future ambition is striking. But despite the diversity, the most effective ICPs share several essential characteristics.
First, they foster equal partnerships – between different parts of the NHS, between the NHS and local government, and between statutory partners and ICP members from the community and voluntary sector.
ICPs focus on a long-term vision. They look beyond the immediate and urgent challenges facing the health and care sector to a future vision of better health for their communities, reduced health inequalities and a greater focus on prevention and wellbeing.
They empower decision-makers – at place and neighbourhood level, through support to health and wellbeing boards and other place-level partnerships.
ICPs embed mutual accountability, so that all partners hold themselves and each other to account for their individual and collective actions to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
They promote a trusting and open culture: many leaders said that the most important factor in leading change is promoting a shared culture of trust, mutual respect and transparency where tensions and disagreements can be addressed and overcome, rather than avoided.
And they enable wider participation: ICPs have a key role in giving voice to the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, to the public and patients together with academia and local businesses, to develop a vision and action plan for getting better health outcomes for our communities.
Finally, they spend time getting the governance right, as there is no one perfect model of ICP governance. You need to spend time on designing the governance that is right for your system, building on and adding value to existing local partnerships, rather than duplicating or bypassing them.
It is still early days for ICPs but they are already looking to the future to identify how they will make a tangible difference on several fronts. They want to forge ahead with:
- developing integrated priorities and a shared vision for all partners
- shifting the focus and resources towards prevention
- addressing the wider determinants of health and health inequalities
- bringing the NHS into alignment with existing action on social and economic development.
What comes across most clearly from ICP leaders is their commitment to keeping a focus on how to get the best health and wellbeing outcomes for all of our communities.
The LGA and NHS Confederation will do all we can to support them to do this.
What is an ICP?
An integrated care board (ICB) is a statutory NHS 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 a geographical area. An integrated care partnership (ICP) is a statutory committee of an ICB, jointly set up by the ICB and the local authorities within it. ICPs are required to develop an integrated care strategy to improve the health, public health and social care services provided to their population. For more information, see www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/what-is-integrated-care
- The full report will be available shortly at www.nhsconfed.org and www.local.gov.uk/topics/social-care-health-and-integration
