Revealed: First ICS digital maturity ratings

Integrated care systems in the west and south west of England are some of the worst performing on average in terms of digital maturity, HSJ can reveal.

The final results of NHS England’s latest digital maturity assessment, obtained by HSJ, found that neighbouring ICSs with large rural areas were some of the lowest performers in terms of overall digital maturity.

While Northamptonshire ICS was the overall worst performer in the country – with a digital maturity score of 2.2 out of 5 – neighbouring systems Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICS, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS, Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICS, and Gloucestershire ICS all scored poorly at 2.3 or 2.4.

Consultancy firm McKinsey was awarded a contract worth up to £6.7m by NHSE in February this year to devise and carry out the assessment against the seven metrics set out in the “What Good Looks Like” framework to measure digital maturity.

Provider organisations were asked to rate themselves between “1” and “5” on a series of questions relating to the seven measures, with a final score awarded based on these responses and the responses to a separate contextual survey which looked at specific tech capabilities. ICS scores were calculated as an average of their providers’ scores.

Only three ICSs – Suffolk and North Essex, Frimley, and West Yorkshire – scored 3 or above out of 5. The NHS overall was rated as 2.4.

On the metric of “smart foundations” – which is used to measure the maturity of key systems such as electronic patient records and patient administration systems as well as analytics and reporting capabilities – the highest scoring ICSs were Suffolk and North East Essex, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire and Frimley.

Northamptonshire scored the lowest on smart foundations, with 2.6.

All ICSs excluding Frimley scored poorly on the metric of “empower citizens”, which measures the maturity of electronic communications such as patient engagement portals, electronic access to records and appointment booking systems.

On a regional level, the North East and Yorkshire was the highest performing region with an average overall score of 2.83 and an average smart foundations score of 3.33. The South West was the worst performing region, with an overall score of 2.51 and a smart foundation score of 2.92.

NHS organisations were last assessed for digital maturity in 2019, before ICSs were established. It is difficult to measure progress, however, as the criteria for assessment has since changed.

Some organisations were accused of “gaming” the previous system of assessment by deliberately self-assessing their digital capabilities as poor in order to gain more funding from the centre.

NHSE has said that this year’s assessments were “thoroughly” peer-reviewed to ensure greater validity.

Detailed results from the assessments have been shared with providers and integrated care boards to help guide decision making and resource allocation.

NHSE said that the assessment “acts as a catalyst for informed decision-making and supports organisations in their digital transformation efforts”.

Speaking in Parliament recently, health minister Lord Markham — who has responsibility for tech and data in the health system — said that regional variations in digital maturity could be put down to “disparity in national and local investment over the past two decades”.

He said: “Where feasible, we are encouraging systems to explore integrated care system-wide solutions to support integrated care. As part of our frontline digitisation support offer, we are also working to build an England-wide community to share lessons learnt, improvements and develop peer-to-peer networks to share best practice.”

Digital maturity assessments will be carried out annually to track progress.