Integrated Care Partnership:
Listening to our communities on our draft priorities

A strategy is being co-produced by members of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). The joint strategy will focus on the most complex issues that can only be solved by the organisations within the partnership working together.

Six draft priorities have been identified based on data and insight from communities and you are now invited to provide your feedback on those priorities, before they are considered in more detail to form part of the final strategy.

What is the Integrated Care Partnership?

Partners working in local government, NHS and other organisations such as business, education, Healthwatch and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations are working together as an integrated care partnership (otherwise referred to as ICP), to address the health, social care and public health needs of their communities and ensure the public’s voice is at the heart of decision making.

As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2022, NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the unitary and upper tier local authorities hold a statutory duty to coordinate Lancashire and South Cumbria ICP together.

There has already been a lot of progress made in improving the way services work together and the way health and care organisations work as a partnership across Lancashire and South Cumbria. Joining up health and care is nothing new and the partners will continue to build on the excellent work that has already taken place, including the incredible joint working that took place throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first formal ICP meeting took place on Friday 30 September, and it started with an opportunity for the members to hear from our residents. Healthwatch Together presented a video with local people’s voices sharing their views on where they live and their experiences of health and care. This enabled the partnership to start in the right way – with local people at the centre.

Over the next few months, the ICP will establish the foundation of the way in which it will work going forward, including the development of an integrated care strategy.

What is the Integrated Care Strategy?

The ICP now needs to develop an integrated care strategy to address the broad health and social care needs of the population within their area, including determinants of health such as employment, environment, and housing issues. The ICB and local authorities are required by law to have regard to the ICP’s strategy when making decisions, commissioning and delivering services.

At the first meeting, the partnership discussed the need to develop an integrated care strategy by the end of December, which will focus on complex issues that can only be solved by the organisations within the partnership working together. This is a national requirement, and it is acknowledged that the tight timescales are not ideal. The partnership recognises the importance of ongoing involvement and engagement and listening to communities throughout.

At the meeting, the ICP was presented with a summary of findings which included information from Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) from local authorities, large amounts of data from the Health Equity Commission and insight gathered from engagement with local communities over the last five years.

The partnership, using this data and insight, proposed six draft priorities for the integrated care strategy, which fall under four categories; starting well; living well; ageing well and dying well. The priorities are listed below with a brief description.

Starting well: Supporting children and their families in the first 1000 days of a child’s life

A focus on supporting children and their families in the first 1000 days of a child’s life, with a holistic consideration of factors influencing health, wellbeing, and school readiness.

Living well: Supporting people into employment and staying in work

A focus on supporting people into employment and staying in work, recognising the opportunities associated with health and care as a career for local residents.

Living well: Large scale organisations’ role in social and economic development

A focus on the role that large scale organisations can play in social and economic development, supporting our residents, communities and local businesses.

Living well: Preventing ill health and tackling health inequalities

A focus on preventing ill health and tackling health inequalities, recognising the importance of mental wellbeing as well as physical health, and addressing the factors that cause inequity in access and outcomes.

Ageing well: High quality care that supports people to stay well in their own home

A focus on high quality care that supports people to stay well in their own home, with radical and innovative approaches to integrating care provision.

Dying well: Supporting people to choose their preferred place of death and that they and their families receive holistic support

A focus on supporting people to choose their preferred place of death, and that they and their families receive holistic support from the time of terminal diagnosis to time of death.

Share your views

A short survey has been developed to gather feedback on the draft priorities from people living and working in Lancashire and South Cumbria. The survey asks participants to rank the draft priorities in order of importance, propose what issues within each draft priority are most important and offer any other feedback based on the draft priorities.

How will your feedback shape the integrated care strategy?

The partnership will review the feedback from the engagement as part of the development of the integrated care strategy, and the final priorities for the initial focus of the partnership will be agreed at the next meeting of the ICP.

This is a national requirement, and it is acknowledged that the tight timescales are not ideal. The partnership recognises the importance of ongoing involvement and engagement and listening to communities throughout. There will be a number of opportunities to engage in the future with the partnership as more detailed plans are developed under each of the priorities.

Complete the survey

Please use the button below to complete the survey.

If you need any support with completing the survey, require the survey in a different format or to complete the survey over the phone with a member of our communications team, please contact healthierlsc.communications@nhs.net.

There are sometimes terms and phrases used in health and social care that are not familiar to everyone, therefore we have created a glossary of terms below, in case any of the questions include priorities or issues that you have not heard of and would like to know more about.

The closing date for the survey is Monday 24 October.

What happens next?

Once the survey has closed on Monday 24 October, a summary of the will be shared with the ICP at the next meeting.

Over the next few months the ICP will finalise the integrated care strategy and the final strategy will be launched in early 2023.

After the strategy has been launched, there will be a number of opportunities to engage with partnership as we develop our more detailed plans under each of these priorities.

Glossary of terms within the survey

Digital exclusion / inclusion

Digital exclusion refers to circumstances where some of our communities do not experience the same level of access and capacity to use digital tools such as computers, laptops and tablets, that are needed to fully participate within a very digitally-focused society.

Digital inclusion is the process of working with our communities to increase access, knowledge and ability to use technology in order to participate within digitally-focused activities.

First 1000 days

This refers to a child's life from the moment they are conceived until they reach two years of age (24 months). This is a time when their brain, body and immune system grows and develops significantly.

Food poverty

Food poverty is the inability of individuals and households to secure an adequate and nutritious diet. It can affect those living on low incomes, with limited access to transport and poor cooking skills.

Fuel poverty

In general, fuel poverty relates to households that must spend a high proportion of their household income to keep their home at a reasonable temperature. Fuel poverty is affected by three key factors: a household’s income, their fuel costs, and their energy consumption (which in turn is affected by the energy efficiency of the dwelling).

Health and care infrastructure

Health and care infrastructure refers to things like the individuals, facilities, and buildings that are required to deliver a high standard of health and care services.

Healthy life expectancy

This refers to the average number of years a person may expect to live in good or fairly-good health, based on modern mortality rates in that area.

Long term conditions

A long-term condition is an illness that cannot be cured. It can usually be controlled with medicines or other treatments.

Examples of long-term conditions include diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, epilepsy, asthma and some mental health conditions.

Widening access

This term is used to describe the process for increasing the diversity within a sector, to ensure it is representative of the local community.

Zero-hours contracts

Generally speaking, a zero-hours contract is one in which the employer does not guarantee the individual any hours of work. The employer offers the individual work when it arises, and the individual can either accept the work offered, or decide not to take up the offer of work on that occasion.