A Report by the Director of Care and Health set out the policy context for the development of Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in the NHS in England, specifically highlighting the work to create a Cheshire and Merseyside ICS. The report also set out the emerging guidance around developing Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) in “ place” and specifically in Wirral.

The report set out the policy context as follows:

·  26 November 2020 -  NHS England/ Improvement (NHSE/I) published integrating Care: Next steps to building strong and effective integrated care systems across England, subsequently referred to as Integrating Care: Next steps

·  11 Feb 2021 – The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published the White Paper Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all. On the same day NHSE/I issued four documents encouraging Her Majesty’s Government to introduce legislation, at the earliest opportunity to place Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) “ on a clear statutory footing, but with minimum national legislative provision and prescription, and a maximum local operational flexibility”.

·  25 March 2021 – NHS England and NHS Improvement published the NHS Operational Planning and Implementation Guidance for 2021/22, setting out that:

·  There will be one statutory ICS NHS body and one statutory ICS health and care partnership per ICS from April 2022. •

·  Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) functions will be subsumed into the ICS NHS body and some NHS England and NHS Improvement direct commissioning functions will be transferred or delegated to ICSs.

·  CCG staff below board level who are directly affected will have an employment commitment and local NHS administrative running costs will not be cut as a consequence of the organisational changes.

·  Through strong place-based partnerships, NHS organisations will continue to forge deep relationships with local government and communities to join up health and social care and tackle the wider social and economic determinants of health. To enable this, ICS boundaries will align with upper-tier Local Authority boundaries by April 2022, unless otherwise agreed by exception. Joint working with local government will be further supported by the health and care partnership at ICS level.

·  The development of primary and community services and implementation of population health management will be led at place level, with Primary Care Networks as the building blocks of local healthcare integration.

·  Every acute (non-specialist) and mental health NHS trust and Foundation Trust (FT) will be part of at least one provider collaborative, allowing them to integrate services appropriately with local partners at place and to strengthen the resilience, efficiency and quality of services delivered at-scale, including across multiple ICSs.

·  Clinical and professional leadership will be enhanced, connecting the primary care voice that has been a strong feature of Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and CCGs, to clinical and professional leadership from community, acute and mental health providers, Public Health, and social care teams.

The report further advised that the intention of the Government to bring forward a Health and Care Bill to implement the proposals in the White Paper was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27