Delivering integrated care in Lancashire and South Cumbria

Over the last few years in Lancashire and South Cumbria, a number of organisations have been working in a more collaborative way. This includes NHS organisations, local authorities, the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector, hospices and local universities.

We have already made great progress in improving the way our services work together and how we work as a partnership. Joining up health and care is nothing new – we have been working towards this for some years, and we want to build on this excellent work. This includes further strengthening the incredible joint working we have seen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made a massive difference to the lives of local people and their families.

As part of these developments we have developed materials to explain how the partners are working together to move towards delivering more integrated care across Lancashire and South Cumbria, which you can see below. 

There’s plenty that we can say about what’s happening and how we are making progress, but there’s also some of the detail that we don’t know yet. Some of this will depend on decisions that are yet to be made, however our vision, purpose and reasons for moving to this way of working won’t change.

A glossary is available to help with language and terminology you may find on these pages.

What is integrated care? The national perspective

Integrated care is about giving people the support they need, joined up across local councils, the NHS, and other partners. It removes traditional divisions between hospitals and family doctors, between physical and mental health, and between NHS and council services. In the past, these divisions have meant that too many people experienced disjointed care.

Integrated care systems (ICSs) are new partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.

Read more about the national integrated care developments on the NHS England website (opens in a new window)

The King's Fund - the Health and Care Bill: six key questions

In this article, The King's Fund explain what the changes proposed in the Health and Care Bill will mean in practice and what the new system will look like:

The Health and Care Bill - six key questions

Developing integrated care: The local perspective for Lancashire and South Cumbria

Our agreed vision for Lancashire and South Cumbria, as described in our ICS strategy, is to empower and support healthy communities so that people have the best start in life and can live and age well. 

We will do this by working well together, as equal partners, to put local people at the centre, join up health and care services, and address the critical challenges we face. By working together more effectively we will make a real difference to the lives of people and their families by supporting better health, improving health and care services and reducing health inequalities.

Joining up health and care is nothing new – we have been working towards this for some years, and we want to build on this excellent work. This includes further strengthening the incredible joint working we have seen throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made a massive difference to the lives of local people and their families.

In May 2022, The Health and Care Bill 2022 completed the Parliamentary process and received Royal Assent, meaning it has formed part of UK law. This is a welcome and important step on the journey towards establishing Integrated Care Systems on a statutory footing, which will take place on 1 July 2022.

The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board will be a new statutory NHS organisation that will be known publicly as “NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria”. It is a statutory duty for the NHS ICB and Local Authorities to establish an Integrated Care Partnership. This will be a broad alliance of organisations and representatives concerned with improving the care, health and wellbeing of the population.

A vital role of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership in the future will be as an enabler and problem solver – providing support to our place-based partnerships and provider collaborations to ensure that they provide the best care and outcomes for our residents. 

We have already started to organise our work across different interconnected geographical footprints, and the changes planned will build on this. Decisions will be taken as close to communities as possible. Services will be delivered by different organisations working together, enabled by working as a partnership across health and care. They will work together as equal partners and will be fully recognised as such.

On 1 July 2022 the eight CCGs in Lancashire and South Cumbria closed down and a new ICB organisation was be established. Click here for more information about the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

Within the Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership there are place-based partnerships. A place-based partnership is a collaboration across health, local authority and the wider community, who take collective responsibility for improving the health and wellbeing of residents within a place. Most people’s day-to-day care and support needs will be met within a place and delivered in neighbourhoods. Find out more on place-based partnerships. 

Making a difference: read our stories of joined up working in action

There are lots of examples of ways in which organisations across Lancashire and South Cumbria are working together to deliver better services and outcomes to the people living and working there. To highlight the benefits of joined up working, we have gathered some stories to show how we are already making a difference through partnership working.