Integrated care is all about connecting health and care services so that people can get the support they need in the right place at the right time.
Its main aim is to address fragmentation in patient services and ensure that care is delivered in a better coordinated and continuous way. Integration will provide an opportunity for person-centred care to be the anchor upon which services are designed, developed, and delivered.
Good integrated care helps to reduce the following:
Delivering integrated care is essential to improving outcomes for people who use health and social care services.
To improve health and social care for all, the government has passed the Health and Care Act 2022, introducing new legislative measures to make it easier for health and care organisations to deliver joined-up care for people relying on multiple services.
The proposal was to implement integrated care systems (ICSs) and aim to deliver better, more integrated care for people, with a better and clearer transfer of information from one professional to another.
The King's Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and care in England, has provided a simple definition of what an Integrated Care System is: 'Integrated care systems (ICSs) are partnerships that bring together NHS organisations, local authorities and others to take collective responsibility for planning services, improving health and reducing inequalities across geographical areas'.
The ICSs are the centrepiece of the reforms introduced through the 2022 Health and Care Act. They are part of a significant change in how the English health and care system is organised. For several decades, the focus was on organisational autonomy, competition and the separation of commissioners and providers. However, now, ICSs rely on collaboration and concentrate on the local populations and places as the driving forces for improvement.
One of the many benefits of integrated care systems is that they strive towards a more joined up approach, which creates a more seamless healthcare journey for patients, as clinicians will already have access to their healthcare records and information about their condition - this means patients will only have to explain their conditions and answer questions once instead of repeating themselves to each healthcare professional they come across. This approach should improve the patient's journey through the care system, making it faster, more seamless and less stressful.
To read more about the benefits of integrated care systems, click here.
It's important to note that each Integrated Care System (ICS) is different and must prepare a strategy (an "integrated care strategy") setting out how the assessed needs in relation to its area are to be met by the exercise of functions of the integrated care boards (ICB), partner local authorities and NHS England.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has refreshed the guidance on the preparation of integrated care strategies,
replacing the July 2022 guidance.
Click here to view the 'Guidance on the preparation of integrated care strategies' and the summary of the changes made.
Health and care professionals work together to provide joined up care services throughout an individual's life. These services allow people to receive anything from self-care to intensive care and everything in between.
Accessible, high-quality care tailored to local people's needs, that focuses on individuals, understands and listens to their needs, and recognises that families and communities can play an essential role in supporting health and wellbeing.
In order to transform social care, the NHS Transformation Directorate is providing funding to Integrated Care Systems.
The funding aims to:
As mentioned before, whilst these aims are universal across all 42 ICSs, how each delivers them will differ based on their local circumstances.
Integrated Care Systems will assist adult social care providers in implementing a Digital Social Care Record (digital care management system) that will allow them to access accurate information instantly, enabling them to provide better-integrated care to their clients.
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