Updating you on the changes to health and care across Sussex from July 2022
From 1 July, the ‘Sussex Health and Care System’ will work differently
The changes are designed to help:
-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.
The new way of working will involve all health and care organisations coming together in Sussex as the Health and Care Assembly, the creation of a new NHS organisation called NHS Sussex to strengthened partnerships of health and care organisations working locally.
What changes are being made?
An important next step towards achieving a vision for better health and care for all across Sussex is the development of our Integrated Care System (ICS). In April 2020, the Sussex Health and Care Partnership was awarded ICS status.
This allowed local services to formalise 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 has been particularly pivotal in how services responded collectively as a system to the challenge of COVID-19.
A new Health and Care Act which came into Law in April, sets out new legislative reforms that will give ICSs a statutory footing.
The Act follows the publication by NHS England and Improvement of the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) Design Framework that sets 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 will come into effect from 1 July and aim to enable NHS organisations, local authorities, social care providers, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise partners 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 will see 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 – to be known as the Sussex Health and Care Assembly – will be the statutory joint committee between the NHS and local government that comes together to formally agree the strategic direction for our system. The core purpose will be 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 will have 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 – to be known as NHS Sussex – will become 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?
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.
