Here are some helpful resources to support positive and innovative partnership working with your local Integrated Care System (ICS).
Toolkits
Spring Impact’s Social Replication Toolkit: do you have a solution to a social problem that you know works? The Social Replication Toolkit is designed to help replicate the impact of an existing community-transforming project. Read more here.
Top tips for influencing and working with the NHS as a VCSE organisation. Read more here.
CAVEAT: Community And Voluntary organisation EvAluation Toolkit – a free resource designed to help VCSE organisations demonstrate their impact. Read more here.
Training videos
Data security
During this session, which is hosted by the West of England AHSN, participants will learn how to formulate an action plan to ensure cyber security within their own organisations and the cyber security requirements to assist with tendering contracts with Gloucestershire County Council. Gloucestershire Care Providers Association (GCPA) is voice of the independent social care sector in Gloucestershire.
Navigating the NHS as a marketplace
During this session, Deputy Director of Innovation and Growth at the West of England AHSN, Alex Leach, will attempt to demystify some of the complexities of the health and care sector and detail the support available to you when thinking about working with NHS organisations.
Reports
Power to Change: What works: Successful health and wellbeing community businesses. Read the report here.
Centre for Ageing Better: The role of the Leeds Neighbourhood Networks during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read the report here.
Sheffield Hallam University: Evaluation of the Community Investment Enterprise Facility. Read the report here.
Case studies
Peer Support for Type 2 Diabetes: a primary care and VCSE partnership
The West of England AHSN’s VCFSE Partnership for Better Health Programme
NHS support
The VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance (HW Alliance)
An initiative of the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement, and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), exists to connect the VCSE sector with the health and care system. Visit the Health and Wellbeing Alliance website here.
Government guidance
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published four documents on the Integrated Care Strategy to be produced by ICPs, the role of Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) and Health Oversight and Scrutiny Committees (HOSCs) and engaging social care providers in ICSs. NHSE and the LGA have supported DHSC in the development of these documents.
- Integrated care strategy guidance: Statutory guidance for integrated care partnerships on the preparation of integrated care strategies https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-the-preparation-of-integrated-care-strategies
- Statement of expected ways of working between ICPs and adult social care providers: Provides guidance on how integrated care providers and adult social care providers are expected to work together.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adult-social-care-principles-for-integrated-care-partnerships - Health and Wellbeing Board guidance – engagement document: Guidance on the role of Health and wellbeing boards following the implementation of ICBs and ICPs, for further engagement
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-and-wellbeing-boards-draft-guidance-for-engagement. - HOSC principles: This sets out the expectations on how Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees should work with ICSs to ensure they are locally accountable to their communities. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-overview-and-scrutiny-committee-principles.
Government support
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced the launch of its VCSE Contract Readiness Programme, a £900,000 package of support designed to enable the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector in England better compete for government contracts. Read more about the programme here.
As part of this programme it has launched a new Public Services Hub, containing resources to support both VCSEs and public sector commissioners. You can visit the hub here.
Understanding the new Health and Care Act 2022
The 2022 Health and Care Act introduced new legislative measures that aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to deliver joined-up care. Below are a range of resources to help make sense of these changes.
The Kings Fund: How does the NHS in England work?
In this short animation from The Kings Fund, you’ll learn about the key organisations that make up the NHS and how can they collaborate with partners in the health and care system to deliver joined-up care. You can watch the animation here.
Integrated Care Systems – an introduction
In this short introductory video, our Director of Innovation and Growth, Nigel Harris, explains how ICSs are formed, what their structure is and the role that VCSE sector can play in health and social care innovation and transformation. You can watch the video here.
NHS England Integrated Care Systems: Guidance
A portfolio of ten documents that set out the headlines for how NHS England asked NHS leaders and organisations to operate with their partners in Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) from July 2022 – and guidance in respect of what the employment commitment is, its application in practice and how it affects people. Read the documents and guidance here.
NHS Reset: How health and care systems can work better with VCSFE partners
The West of England Academy
VCFSE organisations and NHS service providers and commissioners can also access the free healthcare innovation resources we offer through our West of England Academy. The Academy is for all health and care professionals, front line, support services, commissioners and innovators living, working or planning to work in the West of England, and provides a range of free resources to help you gain knowledge and develop essential skills for innovative thinking and working. Visit the Academy innovation resource page here.
