Read more about the VCSE Alliance

Integrated care systems (ICSs) are partnerships of health and care organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up services and to improve the health of people who live and work in their area. They exist to achieve four aims:

• Improve outcomes in population health and healthcare
• Tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience, and access
• Enhance productivity and value for money
• Help the NHS support broader social and economic development.

National ICS implementation guidance on working with people and communities sets out the following key points:

• A strong and effective ICS will have a deep understanding of all the people and communities it serves
• The insights and diverse thinking of people and communities are essential to enabling ICSs to tackle health inequalities and the other challenges faced by health and care systems
• The creation of statutory ICS arrangements brings fresh opportunities to strengthen work with people and communities, building on existing relationships, networks and activities.

To help us to effectively deliver this the LLR ICB has co-produced a VCSE Alliance.

Through a number of projects we can demonstrate our commitment to supporting the important work that the VCSE does, by helping to promote their services in a creative way and encouraging future joint working opportunities. Working closely with the VCSE increases and improves our knowledge of what is available and has helped us to build better relationships. Furthermore, this project has enlisted the support of the VCSE in helping the CCG tackle health inequalities and to deliver on NHS health messages and priorities. 

Not only does the programme support compliance of our duties but it also increases public awareness of the ICB priorities, whilst showcasing what the local community can offer them.

The guidance states that ICBs should set out principles for how they will engage with people and communities and how they will develop arrangements for engagement across ‘place’ based areas, ensure appropriate representation, and how they will gather and use information to inform decision-making and quality governance.

The ICS design framework sets the expectation that partners in an ICS should agree how to listen consistently to, and collectively act on, the experience and aspirations of local people and communities. This includes supporting people to sustain and improve their health and wellbeing, as well as involving people and communities in developing plans and priorities, and continually improving services.

The Insights, Behaviour and Research Hub will be a valuable tool for enhancing services and improving the health and wellbeing of people locally. The hub will be a central point for research and inequality data. Data and insights from patients, carers and staff which helps us to understand needs will support us to develop our services to fit these needs.

The Hub will contain all public and patient involvement and experience data, insights and business intelligence from NHS and other sources. For a long time, we have collected a reach seam of insights from people, essential to design and deliver high quality services, but it has not always been used effectively in the design of services.

The data will now be brought together in one place and promoted across the ICB and ICS. Staff who are designing and delivering services will be supported to both understand the insights and use them appropriately to plan health and care services in a way that truly means that people are at the heart of care. We will also work with staff to ensure that they can articulate clearly to people how their insights have shaped services.

The hub diagram outlines an engagement architecture for hearing from patients, public, staff and carers, as well as key organisations and groups, who provide valuable information about experiences of health and care. It also outlines the Hub partners, data retrieval system and management system, publication schemes, both with partners and the public and the feedback mechanisms.