Our role is to join up health and care services, improve people's health and wellbeing, and to make sure everyone has the same access to services and gets the same outcomes from treatment. We also oversee how money is spent and make sure health services work well and are of high quality and work in close partnership with our partner organisations to achieve this. 

 

What is an Integrated Care System?

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.

Integrated care is about giving people the support they need, joined up across local councils, the NHS and other partners. Health and care organisations - clinical commissioning groups, hospitals and community trusts, councils and others - have been working together in different ways for several years and while there has been lots of great collaboration already, previous laws have prevented services becoming properly joined-up. The 2022 Health and Care Act aims to change this and make it easier for NHS and social care organisations to work together.

The Act set up 42 new Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) across England. Each Integrated Care System has two core parts: an Integrated Care Board (ICB) and an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP).

  • an Integrated Care Board (ICB) is a statutory NHS organisation that decides how to spend the NHS budget and plans how to improve people’s health, deliver high-quality care and get better value for money. 
  • an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) is a statutory committee that brings the NHS together with local authorities and other key partners, to develop the overall strategy to improve health and wellbeing.

A helpful animation developed by The Kings Fund explains how the NHS in England works.

Patients and the public will continue to access care and services in exactly the same way as before but these changes will increase the integration of health and care services, building on the many great examples of partnership working and providing more joined up care.

Across BOB ICS, we will plan and provide joined up health and care services through the NHS, local authorities and third sector organisations to:

  • improve the health and wellbeing of people in our area
  • tackle health inequalities
  • improve productivity
  • support broader social and economic development.

By collaborating across the ICS, we will help health and care organisations tackle complex challenges, including:

  • improving the health of children and young people
  • supporting people to stay well and independent
  • acting sooner to help those with preventable conditions
  • supporting those with long-term conditions or mental health issues
  • caring for those with multiple needs as populations age
  • getting the best from collective resources so people get care as quickly as possible.

Following a period of engagement the ICP has agreed its strategy. The BOB ICP strategy sets the direction for our health and care system, linking with local plans, to meet the health and wellbeing needs of people who live in the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West area.