Integrated Care
Joined up health and care
The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced new legislative measures that aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to deliver joined-up care for people who rely on multiple different services, building on earlier recommendations by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
From 1 July 2022 there has been a significant change to the way health and care will be governed across England.
Forty-two statutory integrated care systems will bring together the NHS, councils and other partners to plan and deliver health and care services in their area. The legal introduction of integrated care systems sees clinical commissioning groups dissolved.
Integrated care boards – for us, NHS Kent and Medway – will be leadership organisations supporting partners to more effectively join up care and place an emphasis on prevention. Kent and Medway has a population of 1.9 million people and is one of the largest integrated care systems in the country.
The aim is to enable the forty-two areas to completely transform health and care for people in their local communities, as well as cutting red tape. For example, boosting health checks in the community to find people with health problems before they become seriously unwell is a key goal of the shift to integrated care systems, where local organisations work together to better meet the needs of local people.
This animation from The King's Fund explains the key organisations that make up the integrated care system: How does the NHS in England work and how is it changing? (You Tube video).
Kent and Medway Integrated Care System
An integrated care system is when all organisations involved in health and social care work together in different, more joined-up ways. The focus is on providing care in a way that benefits patients - not what is easiest for organisations.
In Kent and Medway, all the NHS organisations and the Kent and Medway councils have been working together as a sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) since 2016.
In April 2021, NHS England formally accredited Kent and Medway as an Integrated Care System (ICS).
On 1 July 2022, the integrated care system was given statutory responsibilities; NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board replaced the clinical commissioning group.
You can see more about what partners working together want to achieve in this film produced by NHS Kent and Medway: Joining up health and social care (Vimeo).
You can also visit the Kent and Medway Integrated Care System website.
Integrated Care Strategy
Making a difference, improving local services, and supporting healthier living together.
The Kent and Medway Integrated Care Strategy has been produced by NHS Kent and Medway, Kent County Council and Medway Council, supported by district councils, Healthwatch organisations and the voluntary sector. It looks at how health and care colleagues from the NHS and local councils can work together to make improvements.
An interim integrated care strategy was published in 2023. It set out a shared purpose and common aspiration of partners to tackle:
- the full range of health determinants and,
- working in increasingly joined up ways to improve health and address inequalities.
Since then, the Kent and Medway ICS have engaged people, organisations and local partnerships in shaping a final version, published April 2024. This strategy is also the Joint Local Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Kent. It sets the vision for the ICS. All partners will tailor its delivery to meet local need, making a difference to the lives of the people of Kent and Medway.
The strategy sets out six outcomes.
We will:
- Give children and young people the best start in life
- Tackle the wider determinants to prevent ill health
- Support happy and healthy living
- Empower people to best manage their health conditions
- Improve health and care services
- Support and grow our workforce
Read the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Strategy (pdf).
Health and Care Partnerships
There are four Health and Care Partnerships (HCPs) in Kent and Medway, including East Kent.
Health and care partnerships (previously called Integrated care partnerships or ICPs) bring together all provider health organisations in a given area to work as one. Each organisation within a partnership retains its own budget but will agree, with other partners, how it is spent for the benefit of the local community.
Partnerships can design and deliver services to meet the needs of everyone they serve based on their local population. They can focus services on areas of greatest need, helping to reduce health inequalities and improve life expectancy.
HCPs are supporting healthcare providers to work more closely with local councils – not just with social care and public health colleagues, but also education, planning, housing, environmental health and leisure services.
Primary Care Networks
Primary care networks (PCNs) include groups of general practices working together, and in partnership with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services in their local area, to offer more personalised, coordinated health and social care to the people living in their area.
There are around 40 PCNs in Kent and Medway. Networks are aligned to a health and care partnership - this supports them to work more closely with other partners in the area.
Healthwatch Kent
Healthwatch Kent is your local health and social care champion. As an independent statutory body, Healthwatch have the power to make sure NHS leaders and other decision makers listen to your feedback and improve standards of care.
Please see the Healthwatch easy read resources that help explain its role and what it does.