‘Get stuck into ICSs’, Hewitt tells local leaders

Ms Hewitt, Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board chair and former health secretary, was speaking at the NHS ConfedExpo conference, the day after government responded to her recent review of ICSs.

The Department of Health and Social Care rejected or ducked several of its most eye-catching recommendations, but did state its support for ICSs and system working; while Labour has also said it would maintain ICSs should it come to power.

Ms Hewitt said the government response was more positive than she had feared at some points, and it “would have been a complete miracle” if ministers had backed all her recommendations.

She added: “What’s really clear is we’ve got the cross-party support for ICSs that I referenced in the review. We’ve [also] got the legislation, we are here to stay.”

Ms Hewitt continued: “[This] policy stability should make everybody who might be hesitating a bit about whether or not really to commit to their local system, their local partnership [and] their local ICB, now put aside all of those doubts, get stuck in.”

Mersey Care Foundation Trust chief executive Joe Rafferty, who led work on population health and data for the Hewitt review, and took part in the same ConfedExpo discussion, echoed the sentiment.

He said: “One of the most frequently asked questions by colleagues is ‘do you think ICSs are here to stay?’

“Some people maybe thought ICSs would be transitional – maybe hoped they would be. [There are NHS leaders who] want to engage in new types of reforms and people who will wait and see, and people who at this stage are not convinced.”

But he said the Hewitt review and the government response indicated “the job now is to build relationships”. He added: “There is [now] no divide [between] the commissioner [and] provider sectors in England. So that’s a huge challenge for us to work out how locally we’re going to do different things with resources [we have].”

Meanwhile, Commons health and social care committee chair Steve Brine warned the same panel session that the planned 30 per cent real terms cut to ICB overheads would set back government hopes of them promoting choice and making more use of independent providers to cut elective waiting lists.

Mr Brine, a Conservative MP and former health minister, said: “Systems have told me they are pulling back from that spend because of that [admin costs] reduction. That’s going to make that choice still undeliverable.”