Updating you on the changes to health and care across Sussex from July 2022
Sussex Health and Care is here
Sussex Health and Care will support the people of Sussex by changing the way they receive health and care.
The ‘Sussex Health and Care System’ brings together the many different partners responsible for improving the health care, social care and public health for all our communities. It aims to:
- Support people to live for longer in good health.
- Make sure our disadvantaged communities get the care they need.
- Improve people’s experience of using services.
- Better support health and care staff.
- Make better use of the resources available.
You can read more about the changes and what this will mean to local people and communities on a new website.
Or read our Healthwatch guide which is also available at the end of this page.
An agreed vision for the future sets out where Sussex Health and Care want to be as a health and care system in the future.
It will take time to make the improvements needed and leaders will be focused over the coming months on fully understanding the needs of our population, hearing from our communities, agreeing the priorities for local people, and addressing the immediate issues we know we face.
Visit the new Sussex Health and Care Partnership website
Click here to join an event to hear more or share your views
The new way of working will involve all health and care organisations coming together in Sussex as the Health and Care Assembly, and the creation of a new NHS organisation called NHS Sussex to strengthened partnerships of health and care organisations working locally.
What changes have been made?
An important next step towards achieving a vision for better health and care for all across Sussex is the development of Integrated Care System (ICS). In April 2020, the Sussex Health and Care Partnership was awarded ICS status.
Operating as an ICS has allowed local services to build strong partnership and collaborative working over the last few years which has led to tangible improvements to health and care for local people. This way of working was particularly pivotal in how services responded collectively to the challenge of COVID-19.
A new Health and Care Act which came into Law in April, set out new legislative reforms that gave ICSs a legal footing.
The Act follows the publication by NHS England and Improvement of the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Design Framework that set out the next level of detail regarding expectations for future health and care system working.
The changes set out in the Health and Care Act came into effect on 1st July and will enable NHS organisations, local authorities, social care providers, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise partners, Heathwatch and other stakeholders with an interest in health and care to work together in a more formal way to achieve four key areas:
- Improving outcomes in population health and healthcare
- Addressing inequalities in outcomes, experience and access
- Enhancing productivity and value for money
- Supporting broader social and economic development
The changes have seen two new statutory entities created that together will provide and support the infrastructure for partners to work together as an ICS and better enable us to achieve our vision.
The Integrated Care Partnership – known as the Sussex Health and Care Assembly – is the statutory joint committee between the NHS and local government that will formally agree the strategic direction for our system. The core purpose is to facilitate joint action across organisations to improve the outcomes, equality of access and experience of health and care services for all people and communities across Sussex.
The Assembly has a specific responsibility to develop an ‘integrated care strategy’ for its whole population using the best available evidence and data, covering health and social care, and addressing health inequalities and the wider determinants which drive these inequalities.
The Integrated Care Board – known as NHS Sussex – is a new organisation that will agree the strategic priorities and resource allocation for all NHS organisations in Sussex. This will involve leading the improvement and integration of high-quality health and care services for all communities. NHS Sussex will take on the commissioning functions previously carried out by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
Jargon buster
Commissioning? Continuity of Care? Integrated Care? What do they all mean?
Click here to visit the jargon buster
Click here to watch a series of short videos have been produced to explain things
Frequently asked questions
We know some of the changes to health and care can be complicated. The link below will answer some frequently asked questions that might help with explaining the proposed changes.
