The idea is that local communities can benefit from a stronger focus on prevention and tackling issues that impact health such as housing, unemployment, social inclusion to improve wellbeing and prevent health issues from overwhelming local primary care services.
There are currently 18 areas covered by an ICS, which are currently classed as voluntary partnerships as they have no basis in legislation, no formal powers or accountabilities.
An ICS will cover a larger geographical area, using a model of “systems within systems” – smaller partnerships that will focus on the local populations but working together to cover the expected ICS coverage of 1 to 3 million people.
By April 2022, each ICS should have a workforce strategy that lines up with the requirements of the NHS People Plan. NHSE will provide the finances and ICS leaders will allocate their budgets as necessary between their different service providers in their areas.
As described in the NHS Long Term Plan, every ICS will have the following structure in place;
NHS England has recently recommended that, in order to give more clarity and accommodate the transition, there should be legislation to abolish CCGs by April 2022 and revoke the section 75 competition regulations, allowing NHS services to be protected from competition rules and regulations, which reverses two of the major changes from the Health & Social Care Act 2012.
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