Integrated Care Systems (ICS’s) were created on 1 July 2022 following amendment of the Health and Social Care Act 2006 and replaced Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are partnerships that bring together providers and commissioners of NHS services across a geographical area with local authorities and other local partners to collectively plan health and care services to meet the needs of their population.

ICSs are part of a fundamental shift in the way the health and care system is organised. Following several decades during which the emphasis was on organisational autonomy, competition and the separation of commissioners and providers, ICSs depend instead on collaboration and a focus on places and local populations as the driving forces for improvement. 

They exist to achieve four aims:

• Improve outcomes in population in health and healthcare.
• Tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access.
• Enhance productivity and value for money.
• Help the NHS support broader social and economic development

The following partner organisations are part of the Lincolnshire ICS:

• East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS)
• Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS)
• United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT)
• Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT)
• Lincolnshire County Council (LCC)

The Lincolnshire ICS is named Better Lives Lincolnshire.

The NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) is a statutory body which came into being on the 1st July 2022 with the general function of arranging for the provision of services for the purposes of the health service in England in accordance with the Health and Care Act 2022.

The ICB will use its resources and powers to achieve demonstrable progress on these aims, collaborating to tackle complex challenges, including:

• Improving the health of children and young people
• Supporting people to stay well and independent
• Acting sooner to help those with preventable conditions
• Supporting those with long-term conditions or mental health issues
• Caring for those with multiple needs as populations age
• Getting the best from collective resources so people get care as quickly as possible.

Details of the Membership of the NHS Integrated Care Board can be found here

The Integrated Care Board and each responsible local authority whose area coincides with or falls wholly or partly within the Board’s area must establish a joint committee known as an Integrated Care Partnership. The Partnership must prepare a strategy setting out how the assessed needs in relation to its area are met. Further information on the Integrated Care Partnership is set out below.

Each ICS is required to have a Partnership at system level established by the NHS and local government as equal partners. The ICP is a Joint Committee of the ICB with the local authority, rather than a statutory body. 

Lincolnshire only has one upper tier local authority, namely Lincolnshire County Council, and as such only has one ICP called the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Partnership.

The ICP operates as a forum to bring partners – local government, NHS and others together across the ICS area to align purpose and ambitions with plans to integrate care and improve health and wellbeing outcomes for their population. 

The ICP has specific responsibility to develop an ‘integrated care strategy’ for its whole population (covering all ages) using the best available evidence and data, covering health and social care (both children’s and adult’s social care), and addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants which drive these inequalities. 

The strategy must set out how the needs assessed in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment(s) for the ICB area are to be met by the exercise of NHS and local authority functions. This will be complemented by the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy prepared by each Health and Wellbeing Board in the geographical area of the ICS.

The Lincolnshire Integrated Care Partnership is composed of the following members:

• Exec. Councillor for NHS Liaison, Community Engagement, Registration and Coroners (Chair)
• Exec. Councillor for Children’s Services, Community Safety and Procurement
• Exec. Councillor for Adult Care and Public Health
• Five further County Councillors
• Director of Public Health
• Executive Director of Children’s Services
• Exec. Director of Adult Care and Community Wellbeing
• ICB Chair
• ICB Chief Executive
• Chair Primary Care Network Alliance
• Three Chairs of Lincolnshire NHS Trusts
• 3 Chief Executives of Lincolnshire NHS Trusts
• One designate District Council representative
• Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire
• Designated rep of Healthwatch Lincolnshire

Associate Members

• Designated rep from NHSEI
• Chief Constable / representative Lincolnshire Police
• Designated rep for Voluntary and Community Sector

The following roles will attend both the Integrated Care Board and the Integrated Care Partnership meetings:

• ICB Chair
• ICB Chief Executive
• Local Authority Partner
• NHS Trust Partner
• Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board
• Public Health Representative

As of 1st July 2022 all Trusts providing acute and/or mental health services are expected to be part of one or more provider collaboratives.

For Lincolnshire this includes the following organisations:

• Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS)
• United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT)
• Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT)

The ICB will have a unitary board, which means all directors are collectively and corporately accountable for organisational performance. The purpose of the Board is to govern effectively and in doing so, build patient, public and stakeholder confidence that their healthcare is in safe hands. 

The Board will be responsible for: 

• formulating strategy for the organisation 
• holding the organisation to account for the delivery of the strategy; by being accountable for ensuring the organisation operates effectively and with openness, transparency and candour and by seeking assurance that systems of control are robust and reliable 
• shaping a healthy culture for the organisation and the wider ICS partnership

The ICB has a schedule of functions reserved to it which cannot be delegated to Trusts and those which can be delegated. The details are set out in the Scheme of Reservation and Delegation.