The transition from opportunity to awareness

There’s a number of national, international and awareness days or months on or beginning on Friday 1^st July…

• Clean Beaches Week
• Plastic Free July
• Wallace & Gromit’s Wrong Trousers Day
• Canada Day
• International Reggae Day
• National Picnic Month

…and many others. But there is a day missing from this list, something which many of those reading this will have been working towards for a long time, and something that maybe those outside of the NHS are completely unaware of…

Today, Friday 1^st July, formally marks the launch of Integrated Care Systems in the UK. Something which many people outside of the NHS will be entirely unaware of.

As we know, from statutory beginnings comes the opportunity to build systems which work collaboratively to provide care across organisations and in communities, whilst also tackling health inequalities and driving improvements in population health.

Within the communities themselves, the change is likely to only be really felt once those improvements start to materialise, or better collaboration is achieved to allow access to more joined-up care.

So, if you were to celebrate today’s formal beginning of ICSs, what would you want to make people in your system aware of? Would it be your ICS’s values, the desired outcomes arising from a collaborative approach, or maybe just how the change will provide them and their families with improved care? The opportunity has begun, and we wish all ICBs and the NHS our support and best wishes for their new way of working.

To discuss how Liaison Group can provide support to ICSs to enable transformation and collaboration, please get in touch at [email protected]