Having now been passed into law, ICSs will be given a statutory underpinning across\u00a0England as the Health and Care Bill. This partnership model brings together providers and commissioners of NHS\u00a0services across a specific geographical area with local authorities and other local partners, such as social care and housing, to collectively plan health and care services.<\/p>\n
It is a fundamental shift in the way the health and social care system is organised in England\u00a0\u2013 moving away from competition and organisation autonomy to collaboration between health and care organisations to integrate services, reduce health inequalities and improve population health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
NCF\u00a0have partnered with the Housing Associations\u2019 Charitable Trust (HACT) to bring together a dedicated learning and development programme during June and July to support the sector in working with ICSs. The programme aims to enable delegates to engage in long-term partnerships that transform the delivery of health and care, while simultaneously resulting in better integration between social care provider organisations and health. The training will help social care providers:<\/p>\n
A dedicated and facilitated discussion with NHSEI\/DHSC and social care providers<\/strong>\u00a0as part of a listening exercise on Monday 9th May to understand the challenges and successes of engaging with ICSs. The session will aim to achieve agreement to coproduce a model for engagement with the social care provider sector and to think about where efforts would be most effectively focused. This builds on the collaboration between\u00a0NCF<\/em>, NHSEI and\u00a0DHSC<\/em>\u00a0over the last few months to support ICS engagement with the social care sector.<\/p>\n An online \u2018one stop shop\u2019 on the\u00a0NCF\u00a0website<\/strong>\u00a0that offers a simple overview to ICSs<\/strong>, interactive maps to find out which ICSs operate in any area, key messages to help ICSs understand how social care is central to improving health and care for their local populations and case studies to showcase how engagement can work on the ground to make a difference for people using health and care services.<\/p>\n Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the National Care Forum said that \u201cthe introduction of integrated care systems is a major change to the health and social care system in\u00a0England\u00a0and as such it is imperative that the social care sector fully understands and engages with the process of transition to this new model of partnership working.<\/p>\n “We have created these resources to support our colleagues from across the sector to strengthen their understanding, upskill their competencies and build their confidence in identifying partnering opportunities that integrate health and care services while improving peoples\u2019 health and wellbeing.”<\/p>\n
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