Revised target date for establishment of statutory ICSs

Ahead of the publication of the 2022/23 planning guidance, a letter to NHS leaders from NHS England and NHS Improvement today has set out that there will be a delay in the establishment of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). To allow sufficient time for the remaining parliamentary stages, a new target date of 1 July 2022 has been agreed for new statutory arrangements to take effect and ICBs to be legally and operationally established, which replaces the previously stated target date of 1 April 2022. The establishment of ICBs, and timing for the process remains subject to the passage of the Health and Care Bill through Parliament.

We will work through the detail that has been shared with us, alongside the planning guidance to understand and determine what this means locally. We remain committed to working in partnership to establish the new arrangements and build on some of the great work that we have achieved together over the last few years. In the new year we will provide more detail about what this means and we will be able to discuss this in more detail in the colleague briefings in January.