Overview
Proposed changes to Integrated Care Board (ICB) functions and geography are being discussed as part of a wider NHS reform programme, to reduce management costs and focus more money on the front line.
All ICBs in England are being asked to significantly reduce running costs and shift to a more strategic role with different responsibilities for them and other parts of the health and care system.
This involves some ICBs working more closely with other ICBs in a cluster.
Clustering means that, although individual ICBs will continue to exist, they will work as one – with a single Board, leadership team, and staffing structure.
NHS England and government ministers approved a new cluster for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB and the Northamptonshire ICB. This would be one of 26 clusters across England.
National context
The proposal is part of a wider reform of the NHS operating model across England, which will involve the integration of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, and a changed role for NHS regions, ICBs and providers.
As part of this, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care are aiming to create a new, leaner, and simpler way of working in which each part of the NHS is clear on its purpose, what it is accountable for, and to whom.
The aim also is to lay the foundations for longer-term reform to shift resources into prevention, wellbeing, and care closer to people’s homes, as part of the Government’s ambitious 10-Year Health Plan, launched last month.
The plan sets out its vision to guarantee the NHS will be there for all who need it for generations to come.
It has been shaped by the experiences and expectations of members of the public, patients, partners and the health and care workforce across the country, reflecting the changes that people wanted to see.
Through the three shifts from hospital to community, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention you can read the plan on the Government’s website: 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future – GOV.UK
Local Priorities
The absolute priority for the NHS this year is to continue providing high-quality patient care while reducing waits whether that is waits for surgery, ambulances, Emergency Department, or hospital discharge.
A key part of this is boosting neighbourhood health services supporting the national shift towards a more preventative, community-based NHS.
Bringing care closer to people’s homes through integrated neighbourhood teams recognise the complex and interconnected challenges that many patients face.
ICB cluster design
A process is currently underway to design how the new ICB Cluster could work to best meet the needs of the local population within a mandated reduction in organisational running costs.
Draft NHS England guidance on ICBs’ future role and purpose outlines the need for ICBs to build strong strategic commissioning skills to improve population health and reduce inequalities.
Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB and Northamptonshire ICB are currently looking at what functions should be kept, grown, or reduced – and what might need to transfer elsewhere or to stop altogether.
Design discussions have considered a range of considerations such as population size and needs, patient flows, the need to discharge statutory duties, partnership arrangements and the imperative for maintaining strong ‘place-based’ geography to support development of neighbourhood health in the future.
The priority remains to serve the populations in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and Northamptonshire in the best possible way, working closely with, and remaining accountable to, all local health and care partners.
