Important Update from Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB)

December 2, 2022
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Published by Dudley CVS
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Important update from Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB):

“We are writing to provide you with an important update on work to underpin our local collaborative work in Dudley with a formal Integrated Care Provider contract.Since work started in the Black Country to procure the contract, the NHS landscape has changed significantly. The creation of Integrated Care Systems under the Health and Care Act 2022 has refocussed all health and care partners to collaborate on the areas which will support improved health outcomes.At our local level, place-based partnerships have already been working effectively, in more and more collaborative ways, without a formal contract to incapsulate services working together. Through these Partnerships and the emerging Black Country Primary Care/Provider Collaboratives, we are working together to improve the health outcomes for our population today and to also tackle the causes of ill health for the future.At our Board meeting last week, we took stock of the current working environment and considered the validity of the procurement to award an ICP contract.We have therefore taken the decision to stop the procurement. The main factor in arriving at this decision is that we are not able to award the contract in the form originally procured.Given the financial landscape we have also had to consider whether the continuation of a standalone Trust, with all the overheads that come with it, is the right thing to do for our system.Our board concluded that we no longer believe a contract or stand-alone NHS trust are required to make this integrated way of working happen. However, we will be working with DIHC and the rest of the system to explore alternative options over the coming months.It is vital that the work to support the resilience of primary care and ensuring that they have an equal voice in our partnerships continues.In Dudley, DIHC have led significant work under the NHS England New Care Models Vanguard Programme to develop a new way of working. Their efforts to support primary care colleagues, the creation of multidisciplinary team working, and integrated neighbourhood teams have been recognised and are highly regarded.Through their leadership, DIHC has been able to attract a range of additional roles to support primary care through the Additional Roles Reimbursement scheme (ARRS) and created a local outcomes framework for GPs. The coordination of the extra resource through these schemes has undoubtedly had a positive impact on the delivery of services to meet growing demand locally.It is this work which has created a blueprint for future working across the Black Country and indeed the wider NHS, as it shows the power of primary care and how this can be strengthened by collaboration and scale.Over the next few months, we will be working with partners to establish the best way to support the continued delivery of integrated care across Dudley, focused on alignment of services with primary care as the first point of contact.We will also be establishing how we can support our place-based partnerships and our primary care collaborative to create more sustainable and resilient primary care across the whole of the Black Country, to deliver better quality outcomes for our patients and primary care workforce alike.We want primary care clinicians and the primary care collaborative to play a major role in the ICB-wide process to identify a future model of support for primary care. We will now instigate an ICB-wide process to identify potential options for the development of a pan-Black Country primary care model.We remain committed to working with all Dudley partners to create the right environment for local improvements to population health and we will work with Dudley Council (DMBC) and all Dudley partners to create high quality health services.We want to build on the good work done in Dudley by DIHC, and work with all system partners to agree a way forward and determine any potential partnership arrangements.We will be working closely with the provider (DIHC) to ensure that staff are engaged and supported, whilst the options for the future become clearer. We are not planning any redundancies and services will continue as currently whilst we explore next steps.Best wishesJonathan Fellows, Chair

Mark Axcell, Chief Executive”                       

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