Cheshire and Merseyside is one of the largest of 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICS) across England and will be formally established on July 1st 2022.
Our Integrated Care System is responsible for looking after and delivering all the health and care services in the area and is made up of an NHS Integrated Care Board and an Integrated Care Partnership, working together.
The ICS strategy 'Improving Health and Wellbeing in Cheshire and Merseyside' setting out its objectives and priorities for the next five years can be found here.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB)
The ICB will hold responsibility for planning NHS services, including those previously planned by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). As well as our chair and chief executive, membership of the board includes partner members drawn from local authorities, NHS trusts / foundation trusts and general practice.
In charge of NHS money, the Integrated Care Board will ensure that services are in place to ensure the strategy developed by the Integrated Care Partnership becomes a reality on the ground.
Integrated Care Partnership
Our health is affected by many things – housing, unemployment, financial stress, domestic abuse, poverty and lifestyle choices. This can only truly be addressed via a partnership between the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector.
Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Partnership will operate as a statutory committee consisting of health and care partners from across the region, including voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations and independent healthcare providers.
It provides a forum for NHS leaders and local authorities to come together, as equal partners, alongside key stakeholders from across Cheshire and Merseyside.
A key role of the partnership is to assess the health, public health and social care needs of Cheshire and Merseyside and to produce a strategy to address them – thereby helping to improve people’s health and care outcomes and experiences.
The 'Place' of St Helens
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board will arrange for some of its functions to be delivered and decisions about NHS funding to be made in the region’s nine borough 'places' – Cheshire East, Cheshire West, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, Warrington, Wirral.
While the Integrated Care Board will retain overall accountability for NHS resources deployed at Place-level, Place-based partnerships – led by Place Directors – will have freedom to design and deliver services according to local need.
Provider Collaboratives
There are two groups of care providers working together across Cheshire and Merseyside – known as Provider Collaboratives:
Both will agree specific objectives with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, to contribute to the delivery of the region’s strategic priorities. Both are also committed to working together to enable economies of scale and mutual aid across multiple places or systems to help improve care.
Key People