Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Conclusion 7
Seventh Report - Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability
Published 30 Mar 2023
Paragraph 36
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Unfortunately, there is a clear risk that short-term, acute pressures will dominate ICS capacity, resources and leadership headspace, limiting the true flexibility of ICSs. Active effort from DHSC and NHS England is needed to ensure ICSs retain the space they need to focus on matters like public health and prevention. This will be especially necessary at this early stage of development for ICSs but should be maintained as ICSs evolve.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, Seventh Report - Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability (HC 587), paragraph 36, 30 March 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 June 2023 (deadline 30 May 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the committee's report and states that it "remains committed to the development of ICSs", responding to the committee's and the linked Hewitt Review recommendations together, with some accepted, some supported in principle or kept under consideration, and some not agreed.
- On leadership, it states: "We accept the value of having a national leadership programme across health, care and wider sectors."
- On a national prevention spending shift, it says: "we do not agree with imposing a national expectation of an essentially arbitrary shift in spending."
- On centrally gathering ICB membership data, it says this "will be duplicating efforts as all the information is publicly available".
- On CQC ratings, DHSC "will consider the best approach regarding ICS ratings" and states that CQC "will start to test the ratings" in 2024 to 2025.