Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Conclusion 22
Seventh Report - Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability
Published 30 Mar 2023
Paragraph 71
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)
We have heard a range of compelling arguments for particular professions to have greater representation on Integrated Care Boards and are sympathetic to the concerns that have been raised with us about the exclusion of expertise. However, we are also sympathetic to the Government’s intention to give ICSs flexibility when determining which professions are most relevant to their local needs. Our concern is that it is unclear how the Government will monitor and evaluate whether its approach is the correct one. If data is not held centrally on how many, for example, public health experts or social care providers or clinicians, are on ICBs and no assessment is made of the adequacy of the representation, it is not possible to understand whether the Government’s flexible approach is yielding the results it intends. It will also not be clear whether there are any patterns of under-representation.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, Seventh Report - Integrated Care Systems: autonomy and accountability (HC 587), paragraph 71, 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.