In July 2022, Integrated Care Systems (ICS) will be given a statutory underpinning across England due to the passage of the Health and Care Act 2022. This partnership model brings together providers and commissioners of NHS services 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. It is a fundamental shift in the way the health and social care system is organised in England – 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.
The National Care Forum – the leading voice of the not-for-profit sector – has created a range of dedicated resources and information to help social care providers understand, navigate and improve the integration between health and social care as they prepare for the ICS go-live date on 1 July 2022.
The resources include:
Definitive, dedicated ICS training: What the social care provider sector can do for the Integrated Care Systems
NCF have partnered with the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT) to bring together a dedicated learning and development programme during June and July to support the sector in working with ICS. 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:
- Understand more about ICSs
- Strengthen their understanding of how to engage with their local ICS
- Build awareness of the competencies needed to deliver within integrated care settings
- Identify partnering opportunities and build credibility
A dedicated and facilitated discussion with NHSEI/DHSC and social care providers as 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 NCF, NHSEI and DHSC over the last few months to support ICS engagement with the social care sector.
An online ‘one stop shop’ on the NCF website that offers a simple overview to ICS, interactive maps to find out which ICSs operate in your area, key messages to help ICS 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.
Additional resources will continue to be added in the coming weeks and months.
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of the National Care Forum said:
“The introduction of Integrated Care Systems is a major change to the health and social care system in England and 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. 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 and improves peoples’ health and wellbeing.
The resources are available to all and we encourage social care providers to fully engage with them as they prepare for the go live date of ICSs in July. The training programme is proving popular and we want to see a broad representation of providers involved in these sessions to make sure the social care takes its rightful place as an equal partner in the working of these partnerships.”
If you would like to find out more about the resources available on Integrated Care Systems or to attend the training sessions, please visit the NCF website
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Note to Editors:
- The National Care Forum brings together 160 of the UK’s leading social care organisations, representing large numbers of care providers, offering thousands of services across the country, which are not for profit and always at the heart of community provision. Collectively, these organisations deliver more than £2.2 billion of social care and support to more than 217,000 people in 8,300 settings. The NCF membership body collectively employs more than 117,000 staff and 14,000 volunteers.
- NHSEI (NHS England and NHS Improvement) Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)
- More information is available on the National Care Forum at www.nationalcareforum.org.uk. @NCFCareForum @vicrayner @NCF_Liz
- For enquiries, please contact Edna Petzen edna.petzen@nationalcareforum.org.uk
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