Latest VCSE Partnership Programme updates - ICS developments

Chief executive appointed to North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board

Sam Allen has been appointed as chief executive of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS). She will take up the post of chief executive for the Board at the end of January, ahead of the ICS becoming a statutory organisation from April 2022. 

Welcoming this appointment, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, chair designate of the ICB, said: “I am delighted that Sam has been appointed to this crucial role for our region. She brings a wealth of experience which will be invaluable as we work together to tackle the issues that matter to our communities and deliver a shared ambition to reduce longstanding health inequalities, support people to live healthier lives, and deliver the highest standards of care.”

Read the press announcement and Sir Liam Donaldson's letter to stakeholders. 

ICS implementation guidance

There are now 10 guidance documents from the government covering the development of ICS’s. The guidance that covers working with people and communities is:

ICS implementation guidance on working with people and communities

This guidance:

- Contains 10 principles to be used to develop an ICS-wide strategy for engaging with people and communities to be in place by April 2022.

- Instructs ICS’s to work with the VCSE sector.

- Confirms that the ICS constitution must include principles and arrangements for how it will work with people and communities.

- Stresses the need to ensure that place-based partnerships have representation from local people and communities in priority-setting and decision-making forums.

- States intelligence must be gathered about people’s experience and aspirations, and this must be used to inform decision-making and quality governance.

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. 

The VCSE Partnership Programme is working to support the ICS to implement this guidance.

How to get involved

If you're not already a member, but wish to play a part in ICS developments at a strategic level, you can join the VCSE Partnership Forum which meets bi-monthly.

You may be aware that we provide regular programme updates as well as other regional and national health and wellbeing news as part of our Health and Wellbeing Network bulletin. Anyone in the region interested in joining the network and receiving our bulletin can sign up here.