The new world of Health and Care in the UK will be formalised on 1st July as Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) become legal entities. Now is the time to leverage the benefits that working as an ICS brings to your workforce and citizens.
We know:
- Health and Care partners face a significant challenge in establishing new integrated structures and ways of delivering services whilst navigating out of the acute phase of the pandemic.
- The process of co-developing and building consensus for a vision and strategy across multiple partners is a difficult task, but one that is fundamental for successful implementation.
- The journey that an ICS goes on in developing a vision or strategy by building relationships is just as important and valuable as the output itself.
We have an opportunity:
- To look ahead at what can be done to reset and refresh the direction of travel and prioritise the development of shared visions and strategies.
- To translate aspirations of delivering care differently for our citizens into firm commitments and tangible outcomes.
- To ensure that ICS, provider collaborative, place, service and neighbourhood level strategy is aligned and pointing in the same direction.
We need to:
- Be clear on what is different about an ICSs– assure your teams that this change will be greater than ‘shuffling deckchairs’.
- Design and develop your vision with, but also well beyond, your leadership team – take your frontline teams, managers and citizens with you on the journey.
- Create governance mechanisms that will effectively support the implementation of your vision and strategy and help you hold each other to account.
What can I do in the next day, week and month?
- Define an approach to vision and strategy development that adopts citizen-centric design, creates consensus amongst system partners and engages your whole workforce.
- Align on the system-level vision but also1.how places and services will understand in practical terms how to embed the vision. What does the vision and strategy mean for primary care? Or a particular Place?
- Develop a communication and engagement strategy that engages your workforce and citizens so they can champion, drive and embed the strategies on the ground.
At Moorhouse, we have worked with a range of organisations across Health and Social Care to help them define, develop and deliver their visions and strategies. To find out more please get in touch.
About the author: Natasha Black
Natasha has supported the integrated care agenda across a range of geographies and service areas in both the UK and in Australia. She has developed system-level strategies for both oncology and urgent and emergency care services.
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