Health, Social Care & Wellbeing

Since 2016 NHS England had been moving towards working in informal regional and local partnerships that help integrate health, social care and wellbeing and give people joined up long-term support for all their health and care needs. This is known as an Integrated Care System (ICS)

In July 2022, this became law, and there are now 42 regional ICSs across England with statutory powers and responsibilities.

In each area there is an ICB – the statutory body that is responsible for planning and funding most NHS services in that area – and an ICP – the statutory committee that brings together local partners to develop a health and care strategy for that area.

Each region or area is split into smaller geographical areas known as ‘places’. These are generally local authority areas, and each place has it’s own ICP.

Each of those ‘places’ is also split into smaller areas known as ‘neighbourhoods’. These are generally groups of GP practices working together with local community health and social care services, called Primary Care Networks (PCNs).

Read ‘Integrated Care Systems Explained’ on the King’s Fund website.

An Integrated Care Board is a new type of statutory body, governed by partners and focussed on collaboration and a means of driving improved health outcomes for people at a local level.

There is now a West Yorkshire ICB, know as West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, and each of the 5 local authority areas within West Yorkshire have their own ICB too.

These partnerships are generally made up of the local NHS, other health and care providers, the local council, local Healthwatch and voluntary and community sector organisations

Read more about why things have changed (in an easy read format).

The Kirklees ICB, known as Kirklees Health & Care Partnership is made up of:

• the local NHS Trusts
• the local Primary Care Networks
• other local healthcare providers such as Locala, Local Care Direct, The Kirkwood, and Community Pharmacy
• public sector bodies such as Kirklees Council, West Yorkshire Police, and West Yorkshire Fire Service
• Healthwatch Kirklees
• TSL Kirklees representing the local VCSE sector
  
  See the full list of partners

Because people are now living longer and may be living with a number of long-term conditions and mental health issues, GP practices are working together with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services in their local areas in groups of practices known as primary care networks (PCNs).

PCNs build on existing primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home. Clinicians describe this as a change from reactively providing appointments to proactively caring for the people and communities they serve.

Each of the 1,250 PCNs across England are based on GP registered patient lists, typically serving natural communities of between 30,000 to 50,000 people (with some flexibility). They are small enough to provide the personal care valued by both people and GPs, but large enough to have impact and economies of scale through better collaboration between GP practices and others in the local health and social care system.

How is the VCSE sector involved?

In Kirklees, TSL Kirklees manages and co-ordinates 2 different initiatives that help local charities, social enterprises and community groups work with their local PCN and social prescribing link workers. These are TSL Kirklees Community Anchors and TSL Kirklees Community Champions.

Social prescribing is a new approach to health and social care that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community that can give support and practical support with things that are affecting their health and wellbeing. This can be anything from help with managing a long-term condition (such as diabetes) to weight loss, exercise, healthy eating, improving mental health and wellbeing, or something specific like stopping smoking.

People are referred to a social prescribing link worker by their GP or other agency, and they work on a support plan together.

They also work with TSL Kirklees Community Anchors to refer people to existing charities, social enterprises and community groups in their local area, identify local gaps and needs and work collaboratively to help people to start new groups and activities.